
Class £iS7— 
l!()()k_4t^UiV 



i'ui;.si;nti:i) dy 




House erected and occupied by the Rev. Jacob Jolinson. 

It stood at the iiortlieast corner of River and Union Streets, and in later years was owned and (.ccui)ie<l 

by Dr. C. F. Ingham. 

From a photograph taken in 18S7. 

Kindly loaned by Oscar J. Harvey. Esq. 



Rev. Jacob Johnson, M. A, 



Pioneer Preacher of 

Wyoming Valley (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) 

1772-1790 

First Settled Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 



By 



Frederick C. Johnson, M. D, 

* 

Historiographer Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. 



READ BEFORE THE WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
AND REPRINTED FROM VOL. XI, OF THE "PROCEEDINGS." 



IVilkes-Barre Recoid Piiiit, 
1911. 



Auv 
APR ::•. I9it 



A 






If ^"^^^^ 



I 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Earlv Life in Connecticut ••4 

Genealogy of Jacob Johnson 4, 9o 

Educated at Yale College i 

■■The Great Awakening" (1743) •• Jj 

Dr. Wheelock's Indian Movement 6, li 

Labors Among the Pequots 7 

Jacob Johnson's Census of the Pequots (1776) ^ 

Preaches to Groton Society < 

'■Old Tenor" Inflated Money s 

Description of His Church Edifice (1767) 9 

Clash With Quakers 9 

New England Theology in Jacob Johnson's Time 10 

Presbyterian Church Divided 11 

Many New Sects Sprang Up U 

"Old Side" and New Side" 11 

"Old Light" and "New Light" 11 

Whitefleld's Revival 11 

Rev. Richard Webster Incident 13 

Journey to the Iroquois (1768) 15 

Documentary History of New York -i 

Origin of Dartmouth College 1" 

Jacob Johnson's Letters at Dartmouth 17 

Brant Interpreter for Jacob Johnson 19 

Samson Occum First Indian Convert 19 

Lost Tribes of Israel 20 

Wheelock Gives Jacob Joh/ison Commission to the Indians 24 

Jacob Johnson Arrives in Indian Country 26 

Consults Sir William Johnson 29 

Consults Col. John Butler 29 

Interview With Governor Penn 29 

Fort Stanwix Treaty 35 

Benefactions of King George 3o 

Speech at Fort Stanwix 37 

Jacob Johnson Excluded From the Indian Congress 38 

Fort Stanwix Treaty Settled— Indians Receive $10,000 39 

Jacob Johnson Returns from the Indian Country 47 

Journej' on Horseback 1,000 Miles 47 

Privations of His Family 49 

Language of the Iroquois 49-50, 91 

Why the Indian School Failed 56 

Out of It Grew Dartmouth College Sfi 

Jacob Johnson Goes to Wyoming in 1772 57 

Sir William Johnson's Warning Against Settlement of Wyoming.... 59 

Dr. John Dorrance's Historical Sermon 63 

Transient Clergy at Wyoming b"o 

Rev. Noah Wadhams at Plymouth 67 

Curious Deed Conveying Title in Town Meeting 69 

Jacob Johnson's Land Holdings 71 

Pennsylvania-Connecticut Land Controversy 72, 81 

Revolutionary Champion 73 

Brant Not at Wyoming 74 

Jacob Johnson Drew Up Articles of Capitulation 76 

Letter to Pennamites 83 

Jacob Johnson in Prison for Pulpit Utterances S7 

Projected New State of Vermont 87 

Timothy Pickering at Wyoming 89 

Charles Miner's Sketch of Jacob Johnson 90 

Jacob Johnson as a Seer 93 

Dug His Own Grave 94 

His Death 95 

His Children 'i6 

Writings of Jacob Johnson 97 



Works Mentioning Jacob Johnson. 

Steuben Jenkins, Wyoming Centennial Address, 1878. 

Allen's American Biographical Dictionary, 479. 

American Ancestry, VI, 87; VII, 91. 

American Journal of Science and Art, vol. 18, No. 2, July, 1830. Article 
by Prof. Silliman. 

Annals of Luzerne County, Pearce. 

Archives of Pennsylvania, vol. 18. (Documents Relating to tlie Con- 
necticut Settlement in the Wyoming Valley, 1893, 351, 598). 

Calkins' History of New London, 421. 

Colonial Records of Connecticut, XII, 525. 

Congregationalism of the Last 300 Years, Henry Martyn Dexter. 1880. 
Appendix 146, 152. 

Constitutional History of Presbyterian Church in the United States. 
Hodge, II, 311. 

Contributions to Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut, 300, 315. 

Documentary History of New York, IV, 244-250. 

Documents Relative to Colonial History of New York, VIII, 122. 

Early Methodism, Peck. 27, 66, 135, 123, 

Egle. Pennsylvania Genealogies, 22. 

History of Pennsylvania, 905. 

Families of Wyoming Valley, Kulp. 

Giddings Genealogy. 

Hazard's Penn'a Archives, X 34. 

Hazleton Travelers, Charles Miner. 

Hitchcock Genealogy. 

History of the Colony of New Haven, Lambert, 107. 

History of Congregational Church in Ledyard, Conn., Historical Dis- 
course, 1859. 

History of Dartmouth College, Chase, 1891, 79-84. 

Historical Magazine (Dawson's), New Series, vol. IV, No. 1, July, 1868, 
Article on Civil Liberty in Connecticut, references to Rev. Jacob 
.Johnson. 13 and 47 refer to controversy between Bolles and JacoD 
Johnson (1756). (In His. Soc. of Pa. Library, in Pamphlet vol. No. 4.) 

History of Susquehanna County, Blackman, 6. 

History of Wilkes-Barre, Harvey. 

History of Wyoming, Miner. 

History of Wyoming, Peck. 

History of Wallingford, Conn. 

History of Lackawanna Valley, Hollister. 

History of Luzerne County, Bradshy. 

History of Luzerne County, Munsell. 

History of Lodge 61, Harvey. 

History of Presbyterian Church in America. Webster, 518, 564, 570. 

Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, 1:349. 

Munson Genealogy, 92. 

National Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. IX. 

Old Forty Fort Church, Historical Address by Hon. Steuben Jenkins. 

Old New York Frontier, Halsey, 1901, 102. 

Penn'a Archives, 1785-6, 1793. 

Penn'a Genealogies, Egle, vol. I, 22. 

Pickering Manuscripts in Mass. Hist. Soc, VII, 131. 

Presbytery of Luzerne, History of. 

Rachel Craig. A novel connected with the valley of Wyoming. By 
Caleb E. Wright, 188S. 250, 273. 

Romantic Incident of Wyoming. By Wesley Johnson. 

Samson Cecum, and the Christian Indians of New England. W. de 
Loss Love, 63, 75, 162, 197, 198. 

The Bloody Oath. A novel. C. I. A. Chapman. 

Tuttle Genealogy. 

University of Pennsylvania and Its Sons, vol. II, 500. 

Wheelock Manuscripts in Dartmoutli College Library. 

Woodhull's History of Congregational Church of Groton, Conn. 

Wright, Historical Sketches of Plymouth, Pa., 373. 

Wyoming Memorial Volum',^, Wesley Johnson, 1878. 

Wyoming Military Establishment, 24th Regt. Conn. Militia; Tubbs. 

Yale Biographies, Dexter, I, 649-6.51. 



JACOB JOHNSON, M. A. 

Pioneer Preacher of Wyoming Valley ( Wilkes- Barre, Pa. ) 
1772-1790 

First Settled Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 



Frederick C. Johnson, M. D. 

Historiographer of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. 



Preface. 



Doubtless of all the pioneers of the Wyoming section 
of Pennsylvania, no one, excepting Hon. Timothy Picker- 
ing, has left material for reminiscences of his times so full 
and so varied as has the Rev. Jacob Johnson, whose inter- 
esting experience as a pioneer missionary and pastor is 
narrated in the following pages. 

The author, his great grandson, has been for years 
patiently gathering this material together for presentation 
by publication. The matter covers fully thirty years of 
active work in the sacred ministry of the Gospel among the 
Indians of Connecticut and New York, and among the early 
settlers of North-Eastern Pennsylvania. 

That grand old church, the First Presbyterian Church 
of Wilkes-Barre, founded by Jacob Johnson, with its many 
daughters throughout this section, is his best monument. 
In his connection with this church more historical material 



* REV. JACOB JOHNSON, 

touching his history will be found in the third volume of the 
"History of Wilkes-Barre," by Oscar Jewell Harvey, Esq., 
now in press. 

The genealogy of Jacob Johnson has already been pub- 
lished in a pamphlet of thirty-two pages, entitled 

"Rev. Jacob Johnson of Wallingford (Conn.) and 
Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) by F. C. Johnson, M. D., Wilkes-Barre, 
Pa. Member of Wyoming Historical Society ; New Eng- 
land Historical and Genealogical Society, etc. 1904." 

HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Early Life in Connecticut. 

Rev. Jacob Johnson, the pioneer preacher of Wilkes- 
Barre, Pa., was born April 7, 1713, at Wallingford, Conn., 
of which place his great-grandfather, Thomas Johnson, the 
emigrant, and his grandfather, William Johnson, were 
founders in 1670. He was a son of Jacob and Abigail 
(Hitchcock) Johnson. Of his early life we have little infor- 
mation. It was his father's desire that he be educated for 
the ministry of the Congregational Church and he was 
accordingly sent to Yale College, from which he graduated 
in 1740 with twenty others as Bachelor of Arts, one-third 
of them becoming clergymen. The college in 1763 conferred 
on him the degree of Master of Arts. 

His father, also named Jacob, was born at Wallingford. 
September 25, 1674, and died July 17, 1749.* He was 
a deputy to the General Assembly in 1763 and is men- 
tioned in some of the Wallingford records as "Sergeant" 
Jacob Johnson. The mother of Rev. Jacob Johnson 
was Abigail, daughter of John and Abigail Hitchcock. 
Aligail, born 1654, was the daughter of Lieut. Nathaniel 

*A fuller genealogy of the family has been published by the pres- 
ent writer in a pamphlet entitled "Rev. Jacob Johnson of Wallingford. 
Conn., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa.", pp. 32. 1904. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 5 

Merriman, one of the original proprietors of Wallingford, 
founded in 1670. 

The elder Jacob was a well-to-do farmer, who at his 
death in 1749 left an estate valued at about £14,000. The 
inventory of the estate and its distribution to the heirs, 
recorded at New Haven, shows that Jacob received as his 
share a piece of land valued at i 1,351 and two slaves, "the 
negro man Dick and the negro woman Deft," valued at 
£800. With the land was "1-3 part of the mines and miner- 
als in the Hanging Hill woods farm." It is likely that these 
values were in the inflated currency of that time. In 1768 
Rev. Jacob was so poor that it was difficult for him to clothe 
his family, then resident at Groton, Conn. 

The grandfather of Rev. Jacob was William, sometimes 
mentioned in the ancient records as "Wingle" Johnson. He 
was a prominent New Haven man and was a deputy to the 
General Assembly several times. William was one of the 
original proprietors of Wallingford, and died in 17 16. His 
wife was Sarah, daughter of John and Jane (Wollen) Hall. 
Her father, John Hall, lived in Boston in 1639, but resided 
m Wallingford in 1671 and was chosen selectman in 1675. 
He died in 1676, aged 71 years. William was one of the 
sons of Thomas Johnson of New Haven, who emigrated to 
Connecticut from Kingston-upon-HuIl, England, and met 
his death by drowning in New Haven Harbor in 1640. 

Of Rev. Jacob Johnson, Dexter's "Graduates of Yale 
College" says : "He was elected to a Berkeley scholarship at 
graduation, but if he resided at all on this foundation left 
soon to complete his theological studies with the Rev. 
Jedediah Mills (Yale 1722), of Ripton Parish, now Hunt- 
field East Association, April 29, 1742." It is also recorded 
of him in "Contributions to Ecclesiastical History of Con- 
necticut," pp. 300 and 415 : "He sympathized strongly with 
the New Lights or Revival party, and early in 1743 preached 
to ihe seceders from the First Church in Milford, Connec- 
ticut, and was invited to become their pastor. He accepted 



6 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

the call and in April the Presbytery of New Brunswick, 
New Jersey, met to examine him, with a view to ordination. 
The Presbytery, however, advised instead a reconciliation 
with the First Church ; and the attempt to settle Mr. John- 
son was abandoned." 

This matter is referred to more fully later thus : 

"On the loth of March, 1749, the North Society in 
Groton, Connecticut, now the town of Ledyard, voted Mr. 
Johnson terms of settlement, and on the loth of June he was 
ordained there." 

The town of Groton, Mr. Johnson's field of ministerial 
labor for twenty-three years, was originally a part of New 
London and took its name from the town in England, the 
birthplace of Governor John Winthrop, who founded New 
London in 1646. Groton, Mass., was similarly named by 
a member of Governor Winthrop's family. Groton, Conn., 
was at the time of the advent of the whites the home 
of (he Pequot Indians. They and their allies, the Narra- 
gansetts, had their stronghold here on Fort Hill and this 
soil was made the battlefield of the first regular warfare in 
New England. Capt. John Mason in 1637 captured and 
destroyed the Indian defenses at Mystic Fort on Pequot 
Hill, and putting King Sassacus to flight ended the dreadful 
Pequot war in the colonies. Thirty-nine years after Mason's 
victory a remnant of the Pequots was led in the war against 
King Philip by Capt. James Avery of Groton. 

The Great Awakening during the decade following 
Jacob Johnson's graduation was a religious movement which 
shook New England to its foundations under the fervid 
preaching of Revs. George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennant and 
James Davenport. Ministers of the gospel were urged to 
remember their obligations to the Indians, and one of the 
fruits of this pleading was to prepare the way for the subse- 
quent missionary effort of Dr. Eleazer Wheelock to evange- 
lize the Six Nation Indians. Rev. Jacob Johnson was one 
of those who became aroused on the subject of converting 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 7 

the Indians and he labored among the Groton Pequots, and 
subsequently the Iroquois of the Mohawk Valley in the 
colony of New York. 

indeed for a century the Pequots had been the objects 
of solicitude on the part of the church at Groton, whose 
pastors preached to them and aided in the maintenance of 
schools. They never had a separate congregation, but wor- 
shiped with the white people. However, they had a school 
house in which services for the Indians were sometimes 
held, with preaching by Samson Occom, Samuel Ashbow, 
Jacob Fowler and other Indians. The land was poor and 
the Groton Pequots never prospered. While in 1725 they 
numbered 322 souls, Jacob Johnson took a census in 1766 
and found they had dwindled to 164 souls, one-half of whom 
were children under 16 years of age. 

"The Assembly in this year appointed a committee to 
repair to the town of Groton and inquire into the condition 
of the Indians. The committee reported them poor and 
needy and that they appeared to be disposed to attend 
preaching and to send their children to school and that some 
ful^her assistance was necessary." It was also "Resolved 
that there be paid out of the public treasury of this Colony 
to the Reverend Mr. Jacob Johnson, the sum of five pounds 
lawful money for his services in preaching to and among 
said Indians the year ensuing." (Col. Records of Conn., 
xii, 525-) 

The church at Groton, Conn., was destined to receive a 
terrible baptism of blood during the Revolutionary War, 
when in 1780 the British troops under Benedict Arnold 
attacked Fort Griswold and mercilessly exterminated the 
garrison, leaving sixty widows and three times as many 
orphans to mourn. 

The terms of Rev. Jacob's settlement over the North 
Society in Groton, now Ledyard, are thus indicated in an 
action of the town meeting held in March previous to his 
commg : 



8 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

"Voted that Mr. Johnson shall have four hundred 
pounds settlement and £300 in old tenor bills salary yearly as 
long as he continues to be our Gospel preaching minister." 
It was customary in Connecticut in those early times to give 
the pastor what was called a "settlement." The £400 for 
the first two years was doubtless considered by the people 
as a sufficient sum to begin official life with. Judging from 
Rev. Mr. Tuttle's History of the Ledyard church this seems 
to have been a uniform amount at that time, at least on the 
part of Congregational churches. 

These "old tenor" bills of public credit were paper cur- 
rency then in use and their depreciation is shown in the fol- 
lowjiig additional resolution, passed at the same meeting, 
the reader bearing in mind that six shillings Connecticut 
currency were equivalent to a dollar: 

ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION. 

"Voted, that said £400 settlement and $300 salary shall 
be paid in the following article*, or bills of public credit 
equivalent thereunto at the time of the annual payment, viz. : 
pork at 2s. per pound, beef at is. per lb., wheat at 30s. per 
bu,. sheep's wool at 8s. per lb., indian corn at 15s., rye at 
20s., cheese at 2s. per lb., butter at 4s., oats at 7s. 6d. per bu., 
flax at 4s., the payment of money to be regulated by an 
equal portion of each article ; always provided, and it is to 
be understood that if Mr. Johnson should withdraw himself 
to any other persuasion, he shall return the said £400 settle- 
ment to the society in the same value as he received it." The 
society was probably led to make this provision as to with- 
drawal, by the fact that Mr. Johnson's predecessor. Rev. 
Ebenezer Punderson, had resigned, to enter the Episcopal 
Church. 

In Mr. Woodhull's historical pamphlet on the Groton 
Cht rch it its noted that while Mr. Johnson was laboring 
m the second or North Society he on June 21, 1767, 
"preached ye first sermon ever was preached in the new 
meeving house in ye first [or South] society of Groton." 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 9 

The edifice in which Mr. Johnson labored at North 
Grocon is thus described : 

"The frame was raised in 1727, by individual subscrip- 
tion. Previous to this time meetings had been held for 
public worship on the Sabbath at private dwellings in various 
parts of the neighborhood. The building stood 116 years 
and was in shape like many of the meeting houses of former 
days, with the main door on the front side, with the pulpit 
opposite to it on the other side of the house, and with a door 
at each end, and having neither porch nor steeple. For the 
purpose of raising funds for its construction the ground 
floor was sold to individuals, and they erected pews for 
their own accommodation, holding same as their property. 
These pews were like square boxes or pens, with seats on 
all sides within, except in the doorway. The high upright 
sides of the pews afforded no very convenient place for 
sleepers in the time of worship. That there was no demand 
for ornamentation in those days is shown by the fact that 
during three successive pastors there was no inside plaster- 
ing except on the right and left of the pulpit; and it was 
open above to the ridge. The timbers of the house, above 
the ground floor, were all visible. It was not until 1790 
that the pew owners relinquished their rights and made the 
house common property so that the pews might be rented. 
The old house resisted the elements until 1843, when it was 
replaced by a new edifice." 

Mr. Tuttle continues : "In regard to Mr. Johnson's 
theology scarcely anything remains to show what it was. 
Verv few productions were left by him in print, but from 
what I have seen I am led to believe that he was a little 
visionary. He published an account of the religious experi- 
ence of a little daughter of his, at the age of eight years, in 
which there was something stated bordering on the marvel- 
ous. But, perhaps some allowance should be made in view 
of ibe ardent affection of a doting parent. [This was his 
daughter Lydia, who became the wife of Col. Zebulon But- 
ler at Wyoming, Pa.] It does not appear, however, that 
bis orthodoxy was ever questioned. 

'Tt was some time during his ministry that the Roger- 
ene Quakers (named for John Rogers of New London) 



10 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

manifested their zeal in opposition to the regular ministra- 
tions of the gospel. Mr. Johnson, as well as other ministers 
in the vicinity, was often annoyed by them in the time of 
Vvorship. Both men and women sometimes brought their 
work to the meeting house for the purpose, it would seem, 
of disturbing the congregation and of seeking what they 
considered persecution. Sometimes they would speak out 
and charge the ministers with falsehood. Mr. Johnson con- 
ceived a plan by which he hoped to put an end to their dis- 
turbance. As they were present on one occasion he said, 

addressing himself to the leader: 'As friend W seems 

to be fond of meetings, I will, with his leave, appoint a 
meeting at his house.' The man gave his consent. At the 
appointed time Mr. Johnson dressed himself in his meanest 
garb (for the Quakers were opposed to any appearance of 
what they considered pride in dress), girded himself with 
a strap, and went to the place of meeting. His audience 
being assembled he commenced his sermon without first 
praying audibly, for audible prayer was contrary to their 
creed. The conversation turned upon the pride of dress, 
and George Whitefield, the revivalist, was mentioned as thus 
showing his pride. The Quaker wore on his head a checked 
linen cap. Mr. Johnson reaching forth his hand took hold 
of it and said, 'I do not think Mr. Whitefield is any more 
proud of his dress than you are of this cap.' Thus the inter- 
view ended and Mr. Johnson had no more annovance of 
that kind." 

In October, 1772 at a Society meeting Mr. Johnson 
a;:ked for a dismission, and his request was granted. The 
purpose of his resignation was to enable him to accept a 
call to Wilkes-Barre, he having been in correspondence with 
a view to removal to the Susquehanna. 



CHAPTER n. 
I\Ew England Theology in Jacob Johnson's Time. 
The period during which Jacob Johnson was educated 
at Yale College and during the quarter century which fol- 
lowed, was characterized by great theological unrest 
throughout New England. It was a time of upheaval, and 
the Presbyterian Church was for a time divided against 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. II 

itself. "It was," as Jacob Johnson wrote in his pamphlet on 
Sarah Williams, "a time of feuds, animosities, divisions and 
discords among brethren." 

All denominations suffered and many new sects sprang 
up. In a pamphlet published in 1754 by Jacob Johnson, 
then minister at Groton, he says that little town had "Episco- 
palir.ns, Presbyterians, Congregational ists, Saybrookalians, 
Baptists, Quakers, Rogerenes, Friends, Separates, Independ- 
ents, Levellers, Freethinkers, Seekers, Heathen, Solitudi- 
narians and I know not how many more." 

There were many dissensions as to whether the Confes- 
sion of Faith or the Westminster Catechism was the true 
basis of faith, and in 1741 a schism occurred, due to the 
following causes : 

(i) The quarrel between the Revivalists and their 
opponents. The Revivalists came to be known as New 
Lights, or New Side, in distinction from the conservatives, 
who were called Old Lights or Old Side. 

(2) Demand of Synod that all candidates for the min- 
istry undergo examination at its hands. The New Lights 
resented the interference of Synod as an infringement on 
individual liberty. 

(3) Protest of Synod against itinerant preachers was 
another cause of the rupture. In 1737 it was ordered that 
no minister of one Presbytery be allowed to preach in the 
bounds of another, without the permission of the latter. 
The Revivalists defied the Synod by their itinerant evange- 
lism and they claimed the right to speak to whatever con- 
gregations desired to hear them. 

"The coming of Whitefield was the breeze which fanned 
the smouldering fire of discontent into a flame. His power 
was that of a tornado, which swept all before it. He 
prPc'ched to thousands. So profound an impression did he 
make in Philadelphia that for a whole year daily services 
we-e held. The Old Side partisans ranged themselves in 
opposition, and closed their pulpits against him. The New 
Side was in strong sympathy with the revival. The Pres- 



12 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

byteries were in open rebellion against Synod. New Bruns- 
wick ignored Synod's rule of examination and licensed can- 
didates on its own account, and evangelists went everywhere 
regardless of the edict against itinerants. Rival pamph- 
eteers kept the presses busy with their fulminations. Some 
of these writers were surprisingly bitter. They denounced 
one another as heretics, Pharisee preachers, wolves in 
sheep's clothing, devouring monsters, babbling ignorant 
priests, devil's advocates. Jacob Johnson was a contributor, 
though not a radical one, to the controversy and several of 
the libraries of the country contain rare copies of his 
pamphlets. 

"It was a sorry spectacle, this contest of ungenerous 
partisans. The New Side claimed that vital religion was 
dead among clergy and people. The Old Side criticised 
the revival methods as sensational, disorderly and demoral- 
izing. Both sides considered union as 'monstrously absurd' 
and in 1741 the New Brunswick Presbytery withdrew and 
Synod found itself divided." 

Gillett, in his History of the Presbyterian Church, says : 

"As to the Revival the verdict of impartial history 
must pronounce it, with some qualifications, a powerful 
movement for good. If it sometimes burned the standing 
com, it consumed an immense mass of stubble. Vital reli- 
gion all over the land was strengthened by it. Thousands 
of souls were converted. The pulpit was armed with a 
new power and a dead orthodoxy was quickened to life. 
But neither the movement nor the opposition to it was con- 
fined to the Presbyterian Church. Some of the Boston 
ministers opposed the revival. 

"The Legislature of Connecticut in 1742, at the insti- 
gation of certain ministers, enacted that any clergyman who 
should preach outside of his own parish, without invitation 
of the settled minister, should forfeit his salary and be 
bound over to court in the sum of iioo, to peaceable and 
good behavior. Nonresident preachers, not licensed by an 
association, were liable to arrest as common vagrants, to be 
expelled from the colony. In 1743 all the pulpits of New 
Haven County were closed against the ministers of New 
Brunswick Presbytery. It was not until 1758 that harmony 
was restored." 

Als showing the intolerance of that period, the follow- 
ing from "The History of the Presbyterian Church in 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 13 

America," by Rev. Richard Webster, father of Rev. Richard 
B, Webster of Wilkes-Barre, gives an incident in which 
Jacob Johnson was a participant : 

"In 1737 difficulties arose in the congregation of Mil- 
ford, New Haven County, in relation to the settlement of 
Mr. Whittlesey as pastor, a respectable minority regarding 
his doctrine as Arminian and his preaching as unedifying. 
They urged their objections so strongly and with such ap- 
parent concern and conscientiousness that the Council 
declined to ordain, but the majority of the people, headed 
by the Deputy Governor, insisted on their rights, and it was 
finally agreed to ordain him, and that the minority should 
hear him for six months, and, if not satisfied, should settle 
a colleague according to their liking. They heard him two 
years, but were more dissatisfied, and in 1740 applied to 
the church and then to the town for relief according to the 
agreement. Finding them intractable they asked advice of 
the Association ; but they obtained neither advice nor coun- 
tenance. They then — according to the 'statute for consci- 
entious scruplers' — declared 'their sober dissent from the 
Standing Order' established in the colony, professing them- 
selves to be Presbyterians according to the church of Scot- 
land, and agreed November 30, 1741, to set up a separate 
society, if thirty heads of families would unite for that 
purpose. On the following Sabbath they met for worship 
at the house of George C. Clark, Jr., and on the last Tues- 
day in January, they qualified themselves before the county 
court according to the Toleration Act, thirty-nine persons 
taking part. The Rev. Benajah Case of Simsbury was 
fined and imprisoned for having preached for them. 
Whittlesey refused his pulpit, on Sabbaths when he did not 
use it, to the ministers who came to preach to them. One 
of them preached from the doorstone to an assembly of a 
thousand. Whitefield had preached here with unusual 
success in October, 1740, and Gilbert Tennant was there in 
the next spring. The people made preparations to build a 
meeting house in May, 1742, but the town refused to^ allow 
them to erect on the common. The county court, however, 
granted them liberty to build, and in November it was 
raised. The Rev. John Eels of Canaan preached the first 
sermon in it, and the constable was ordered to apprehend 
him ; a like order was issued against the Rev. Elisha Kent 
of Newtown, but they both escaped his search. 



14 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

"Jacob Johnson of Groton, Conn., who graduated at 
Yale in 1740, preached to them, having taken the necessary 
oaths. Having made him a call, they applied to New 
Brunswick Presbytery to receive them and take Mr. John- 
son on trial with a view to ordination. They constituted 
themselves a church and elected ruling elders.' Accordingly 
said members did send to him pieces of trial ; a sermon on 
Romans 8:14 ['For as many as are led by the spirit of God, 
they are the sons of God'] and a Latin exegesis — 'An 
regimen ecclesia preshyteriale sit Scripturae et rationi con- 
grimmf [Concerning the regimen of the Presbyterian 
Church, is it in accord with Scripture and reason?] 

"The New Brunswick Presbytery met April 6, 1743, 
to hear the exercises, and after proceeding some length in 
the examination of Jacob Johnson the Presbytery paused 
and advised that a further attempt be made toward a recon- 
ciliation with the First Church. The effort was unsuc- 
cessful. 

"Samuel Finley preached two Sabbaths * * * 
and for this offense he was prosecuted, tried and con- 
demned. Governor Law ordered him to be transported, as 
a vagrant, — disturbing the peace of the community — from 
town to town out of the colony. This treatment was con- 
sidered by some of the ablest civilians in Connecticut and 
the city of New York to be so contrary to the spirit and 
letter of the British Constitution that had complaint been 
made to the King in Council it would have vacated the 
colonial charter." 

As illustrative of the revival spirit of that period we 
insert an account of a later revival in Lebanon, Conn., as 
written by Dr. Eleazar Wheelock to Jacob Johnson while 
the latter was on a missionary visit to the Oneida Indians. 
The original letter is in the library of Dartmouth College : 

"Lebanon, Conn., Jan. 30, 1769. 
"The work of God in this place, which began before 
Mr. Cleveland went up to ye Indian congress [at Fort 
Stanwix], is now glorious indeed; it has spread into all 
parts of ye parish; their conference meetings (which are 
very frequent) fil ye houses where they are held ; five of 
which we had last evening — at these meetings scarcely a 
word is heard but of ye things of ye kingdom ; great so- 
lemnity, eagerness & affection in hearing the Word whenever 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. I5 

they have opportunity for it. And it is yet increasing daily, 
very fast. Accounts every day of new conversions & souls 
newly wounded — And hitherto, by the goodness of God, 
such hath been ye order, regularity, & decency through ye 
whole, that ye Accuser of ye Brethren himself, han't yet 
been able, that I know of, to form one plausible objection, 
either against the work itself, or the subjects of it. Con- 
victions are remarkably genuine, conversions clear, & ye 
fruits very good. Near 30 have been hopefully converted 
within a few weeks — Several of my Family and school, I 
hope, thro ye Grace of God, are ye happy subjects of this 
work, and just at this juncture as ye Indian boys begin to 
appear concerned, they are sent for home, and in all human 
probability will lose their convictions, & and I fear their 
souls too by ye means. I verily believe the old destroyer 
of souls is at ye Bottom, whoever were the instruments. 
I have taken care to forward your letters. I heard that your 
Family were well about 10 days ago. Mr. Barber is dis- 
missed, as is also Doctor Whitaker. Mr. Occum preaches 
with great success of late both to English & Indians ; many 
appear concerned under his ministry. I would send you 
money, but you said nothing to me about it, nor am I advised 
for our dear Mr. Kirtland. I beg of you to be a father to 
him — 

"Accept my best Respects. The Lord be with you, my 
dear Brother, farewell, 

"Yours in the dear Jesus — 

[Rev. Jacob Johnson.] Eleazar Wheelock. 



CHAPTER III. 

Journey to the Six Nations. 

The year 1768 was marked by a notable event, one in 
which Jacob Johnson was unexpectedly a participant. This 
was the treaty at Fort Stanwix, in the heart of the Six 
Nation country, in the province of New York. The event 
was of national importance, as it was there that England 
fixed a permanent dividing line between the English colonies 
and the Indian domain. French rule had fallen at Quebec 



l6 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

and the English ascendancy in America was now well estab- 
lished. The Indian country was being more and more 
encroached upon and it became necessary to establish a 
boundary beyond which the whites should not make settle- 
ment. 

Accordingly a council or congress was held at Fort Stan- 
wix, now Rome, Oneida Co., N. Y., in the autumn of 1768, 
at which there were present Sir William Johnson, the gover- 
nors of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and 3,200 
Indians of the Six Nations. Twenty boatloads of blankets, 
goods and rum were provided to propitiate (Jacob Johnson 
says "decoy") the Indians. (See letter infra.) Six days 
were consumed in private conferences before the Indians 
agreed to a boundary line. The sum of $10,000 in goods and 
money was then paid to the Indians, an insignificant sum 
for a piece of territory nearly 1,000 miles long, covering 
large parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and 
West Virginia. 

Not only was the Fort Stanwix treaty of national im- 
portance, but it was of equally great concern to the pro- 
jectors of the Connecticut migration to Wyoming Valley, 
since it was at this Fort Stanwix treaty that a former 
sale of the Wyoming lands to Connecticut (at Albany in 
1754) was repudiated and a new sale made to the Pro- 
prietors of Pennsylvania. The Penns dominated the Fort 
Stanwix council, and it was only natural that they would 
use their power to crush the Connecticut movement towards 
the disputed lands in Pennsylvania. The Connecticut 
people would not recognize the 1768 sale as valid and thus 
there ensued the Pennamite War, which was to occupy a 
third of a century and deluge the valley of the Susquehanna 
with blood. 

Having then in mind a purpose to wrest the old i754 
title to Wyoming from the Connecticut claimants, Sir 
William Johnson and the royal Proprietaries of Pennsyl- 
vania, John and Thomas Penn, saw to it that Connecticut 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. I7 

received no invitation to the Fort Stanwix council. But it 
happened that Jacob Johnson was there, having been sent 
on a missionary journey to the Oneida Indians by Dr. 
Eleazar Wheelock, who also gave him authority to present 
to the assembled Indians, and to the representative of the 
Crown the needs of the educational movement. Mr, John- 
son was an impulsive man and in his zeal for the rights of the 
Indians, and in his fearless utterances of some "rebel" senti- 
ments, he incurred the displeasure of Sir William Johnson 
and the Penns and they excluded him from the deliberations 
with the Indians. As the request of Dr. Wheelock for aid 
for his Indian school was refused and this refusal was 
looked upon as the death blow to the Indian school, there 
was considerable criticism directed against Jacob Johnson 
in the correspondence of the time. A study of the facts 
will show that the Connecticut parson was in nowise to 
blame. 

Let us now pass to some details of the missionary 
journey of Mr. Johnson and his adventures at Fort Stanwix. 

In the middle of the eighteenth century there was a 
powerful revival in New England (see page 6), and as 
one result of the Great Awakening, as it was called, the 
clergy felt a heavy burden for the souls of the Indians. Dr. 
Eleazar Wheelock's propaganda to civilize and Christianize 
the Indians was one of the great religious movements of 
our history. In 1741, the year following Jacob Johnson's 
graduation from Yale, Wheelock preached 500 sermons 
throughout New England. The movement took hold of 
Jacob Johnson and hence his connection with the Pequot 
Indians of the neighborhood, as noted supra. 

Until recently there was no known material concerning 
Jacob Johnson's missionary experience except some corre- 
spondence published in the Documentary History of New 
York, but there has lately been found a collection of his 
letters in the library of Dartmouth College, giving many 
interesting details of a journey to the Indians and of the 



l8 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

part which Mr. Johnson unexpected!}^ took in the council 
with the Indians at Fort Stanwix. Grateful acknowledg- 
ment is made to the librarian at Dartmouth College, Mr. 
M. D. Bisbee, for placing these original manuscripts at the 
disposal of the compiler. 

The following manuscript correspondence appears in 
"Documentary History of New York, iv, 245." The orig- 
inals are in vol. 16 of the Sir William Johnson papers at 
Albany : 

Oct. 17, 1768. Letter of Rev. Jacob Johnson to Sir 
William asking interview with the Indians and requesting 
that they be informed as to his late arrival at Fort Stanwix. 

Letter to Sir William and the Commissioners defining 
his idea of allegiance to the King. 

Oct. 22. Thanking Sir William for restricting the 
supply of liquor to the armed Indians at such a critical time 
as the Fort Stanwix conference. 

Oct. 30. Asking the Commissioners at Fort Stanwix 
that the Indians be not sent so far away by sale of their 
lands as to prevent the continuance of missionary work 
among them. 

Oct. 31. Jacob Johnson's request of the Indians at 
Fort Stanwix to aid Wheelock's schools. 

Nov. 24. Letter of Sir William Johnson charging 
Jacob Johnson with intrigue among the Indians and obstruc- 
tion of the proposed boundary of the Indian land. 

For reasons not apparent Mr. Johnson signed some of 
his letters of that period as Jacob W. Johnson and others as 
Jacob Ws Johnson. But usually his name appears without 
middle initial. 

The evangelizing of the Indians had long occupied the 
attention of philanthropists on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Both the Church of England, and the Presbyterians had 
supported missions among the aborigines, the former as early 



REV. JACOB JOHNSOX. I9 

as 1701, and the Jesuits much earlier. But Wheelock* under- 
took to found a school which should remove young Indians 
from their native environments and bring them in contact 
with English youth in a mixed school. His design was to 
educate his Indian pupils especially for missionaries for 
work among their own people. The school was established 
at Lebanon, Conn., and was often spoken of as Moor's 
Indian Charity School, from the man who donated the land. 

Out of it grew Dartmouth College. Among Wheelock's 
pupils were Joseph Brant, and Walter Butler, son of Col. 
John Butler, who with the Indians and Tories destroyed 
Wyoming in 1778. Brant, at the age of nineteen had been 
sent to Wheelock's school by Sir William Johnson and 
remained two years. Becoming interested in Christianity 
Brant acted as interpreter on preaching journeys to the Six 
Nations. Jacob Johnson records in one of his letters that 
Brant had interpreted for him. 

In the spring of 1768 Wheelock heard that Jacob 
Johnson, now a man of fifty-five, felt drawn towards the 
Indian field, and he invited him to undertake a missionary 
journey to the Oneidas. They were the first of the Six 
Nations to express a desire for missionary effort, and in 
1 761 Samson Occum, the first of Wheelock's converts, had 
been sent to them. Occom was the first missionary sent 
out under the auspices of Connecticut people, his predeces- 
sors having been sent out by the Boston "Society for Propa- 
gating the Gospel," 1741. While on this journey Occom 
secured three Indian boys as pupils in Wheelock's Charity 
School, one being Joseph Brant. The Oneidas heard John- 
son gladly. 

Wheelock, in addition to the charge of his own parish 
and extensive itinerating, had early taken Indian boys into 
his own family to train and educate, and thence conceived 

*R€v. Eleazar V^heelock, b. Windham, Conn., 1711, called "The 
father of Indian Missionaries." See McClure's "Memoirs of Wheelock," 
Love's "Samson Cecum," Dexter's "Tale Biographies." 



20 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

the plan of fitting them for missionaries among their own 
people. Wheelock, Hke William Penn and Count Zinzen- 
dorf, was inclined to the belief that the Indians were 
descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, who had 
migrated from Asia by way of Behring Strait. Jacob John- 
son held the same view. One of the earliest to entertain 
this view was John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians, who 
in 1660 founded the first Indian church in America. 

Aaron Kinne, who was a teacher in Wheelock's school 
for the Oneida Indians, wrote to Wheelock, from Groton, 
Conn., April i, 1768, as follows, advising him of Jacob 
Johnson's availability for the Indian work : 

"I have lately seen Mr. Johnson, & informed him of 
your Request — He appears very friendly & determines, 
extraordinaries excepted, to give a Sabb. for the supply of 
Mr. Pomroy's Pulpit [in Hebron], viz., the third in April. 

"I briefly hinted to him the want of Missionaries at 
which he was somewhat elated & desires you would write 
to him, & give information of particulars, as soon as may 
be that he may have Time for Consideration before he shall 
come that way. 

"Aaron Kinne."" 

Mr. Pomroy was brother-in-law of Wheelock. 

Wheelock to Johnson, 

"Lebanon 26th Apl 1768. 
"Revd & dear sir 

"Last week I wrote you a line in utmost haste on my 
being informed by Mr Camp yt you was willing to accept 
a mission among ye Indians for 6 months. I would pray 
you to settle your affairs as soon as possible in order to go — 
And if you can, I pra}^ you would so order your affairs as 
to preach at Hebron ye Sabbath after next, or they will be 
destitute so far as I can see or know. 

"If you would come at that time prepared to go on 
your mission I would accompany you to Hartford to ye elec- 
tion, but you will need to spend some days wth me before 
you go, in order to get Intelligence of Affairs &c. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 21 

"Please to let me know as soon as possible wt you will 
want besides money yt I must provide for you &c — Accept 
kindest love to you & spouse from my dear sir 
"Yours in ye dearest bonds, 

"Eleazar Wheelock. 
"Revd Jacob Johnson." [Dartmouth MSS.] 

Johnson to Wheelock. 
"Sr 'Groton May 17th, 1768 

"I am present reduced to a very low State of Health, 
by the Great Cold I took, or Some other Cause, so that I 
was not able to Attend the Service the last L'ds Day — I am 
a good deal at a loss, whether I shall attempt the journey 
proposed, if I dont recover my health better by the Time 
prefixt — But I have had opportunity to confer with Mr. 
Kenne ; who now is in Groton ; and seems a good deal in- 
clinable to go — And I hope, either He or I, or both Shall be 
setting forward at the time proposed — 

"I send you enclosed a Funeral Discourse.* 
"I wish I coud serve the cause of Christ in a better 
manner, and more extensive way than hitherto I have 
done. But alas ! I am but a poor earthen vessel. O that I 
might be like one of Gideon's Pitchers, that the more broken 
I am, the more the Light may Shine out. O I want, or think 
I want, to do something for Christ, his Cause, & Kingdom ; 
If it were but as Clay and Spittle. But that I must leave 
with him, who has me in hand. I am for his sake Yours 
&the 

"church's humble Servt 

"Jacob Johnson." 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Sr "Groton May 21, 1768 

"My health not addmitting me at present to go on so 
long a journey as to the Onoida, I have prevaild with Mr 
Kinny to go in my Room, who will be with you, Providence 
permitting. And he proposes to go on that Christian Ser- 
vice of progagating the Gospel among the Indians for the 
months of June July & August. And if farther helpe be 

*This was a sermon preached by Jacob Johnson at Groton at the 
funeral of Col. Christopher Avery. It was printed by Timothy Green, 
New London, 1768, in a pamphlet of 36 pages. A copy is to be seen in 
the library of the Connecticut Historical Society. 



2^ REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

needed & can't be had without my going And my health 
be restored, I propose to go for the months of Sep- 
tember, October & November: or even thro' the winter, if 
there be a prospect of doing much Service. Sr, I heartily 
wish prosperity to Zion & to every attempt, in a Christian 
manner, to carry and spread the Gospel among the perish- 
ing Natives and am with all proper Respect your Dutiful 

"huble sert, Jacob Johnson. 
"P. S. 

"I shall have opportunity to write & and send you my 
mind farther by Mr Kinny who by the Le've of Providence 
will come by the way of my House on Monday next. I 
have had much anxity & concern of mind in this affair but 
hope all will issue well & to our mutural rejoyceing in the 
end, & farther aim of the Gospel which is all my desire and 
all my joy." 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Groton, Conn., Agst 29 1768 
"Revd & Hond Sr 

"Yours of the 25 Inst I received by Mr Kinne* with 
Some ac't of the State of the Indians at the Onoidas. I laid 
your request before our chh & society or assembly yesterday 
being L's D. [Lord's Day]. Conferd some upon it but ob- 
taining no answer, appointed Wednesday next to determine 
the matter. My going will be attended in many respects 
with great difficulty my health being yet very poor & several 
of my Family No ordained Minister in the town when I 
am out save Mr. Barber** & he yet, & I fear will be to his 
death, wholly useless & much more & still more weighty that 
I cannot write, & besides I don't think I could possibly go so 
soon as next Monday were I to attempt it. However, thro' 
all the crowd of embarrassments if it be the mind of Divine 
Providence I will go, & let you know as soon as I can by 
word or Letter after Wednesday In case some other that 
might do better can't be obtained. 

"I am Sr your very Humle Srt J. Johnson." 



*Aaron Kinne was born in Connecticut in 1744, graduated from Yale 
In 1765. Was a teacher in tlie Oneida school. He was ordained in 1770 
and died in Ohio in 1824.— (Allen's Biog. Die.) 

**Jonathan Barber, born 1712, graduated from Tale,— labored with 
Whltefield in Georgia, was pastor at on© of the Groton, Conn., 
churches, became insane with the delusion that he was a leper. 



rev. jacob johnson. 23 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

'"Groton September 5 1768 
"Rev & Hon. Sr. 

"Your Letter by Mr Kinne I further considered, & 
lay'd before our pp. [people] who have left it to me to go 
among the Indians if I think it my Duty. I have deliberated 
upon it (looking to the Great Counsellor) and have by 
the Leave of Divine Providence concluded to go as soon 
as I can. The Indians are now upon their Hunt, and will 
not likely hold their Congress before the Last of the month. 
It may be not before October. I hope to be on my Journey 
the beginning of next week ; so as to be there in Season to 
treat with them at their general meeting. Except some 
other (I heartily wish might) be found to answer better; 
for it is with great Difficulty I can leave Home ; & myselfe 
(which is worst of all) very unfit for the Service; tho' I 
would by no means decline if God calls, tho' I were the least 
of all my Father's children, & unworthy to be Hon'd as your 
Brother, & Humble Servant, 

"Jacob Johnson." 

Mr. Johnson was then furnished with a commission 
from Wheelock to proceed to the Indian country and take 
up the work which Rev. Samuel Kirkland had been com- 
pelled to relinquish owing to ill health.* Mr. Johnson was 
also authorized to attend an Indian Congress about to be 
held at Fort Stanwix and further the designs of spreading 
the Gospel among the tribes. The town of Rome, Oneida 
County, New York, stands where stood Fort Stanwix. It 
marked the head of navigation on the Mohawk River and 
was in Tryon County, "the dark and bloody ground" of 
the Revolution. In this county was Mount Johnson, the 
fortified seat of Sir William Johnson, at whose beck, says 
Lossing, a thousand armed warriors would rush to the field. 

The home occupied by the Great Confederacy of the 
Five Nations stretched across New York from the Hudson 

♦Kirkland was at this time thirty-seven years of age. He was 
subsequently a chaplain in Sullivan's Army, 1779. In influence among 
the Indians he is considered as being second only to Sir William John- 
son. He was one of the four white lads in Wheelock's Charity School. 
Though he wrote his name Kirkland it as often appears in the corre- 
spondence of the time as Kirtland. He married Wheelock's niece. 



24 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

to Niagara and was called the Long House, each nation 
having its own share of this strip of territory, the Mohawks 
being in the eastern end, the Oneidas at Oneida Lake, the 
Onondagas at the head of the Susquehanna, etc. The region 
was named the Long House from its resemblance in form 
to the dwelling of the Iroquois, which was a long narrow 
bark structure, perhaps 50 feet long, in which dwelt several 
families. 

Jacob Johnson's Commission. 

"Whereas by the Grace and Favour of God towards 
the Savages of the Six Nations Several Towns have been 
induced to favourable Sentiments of the proposals made and 
the endevours used to promote Religion and Learning 
among them, and a preached Gospel at Onoida & Kanawar- 
ohare has in a Judgment of christian Charity been made 
effectual for the saving Conversion of a number of them 
from Idols to God, and for a General Reformation of those 
Sordid & Brutish Lusts & Vices which have heretofore been 
unbridled among them, and the Revd. Mr Kirtland whom 
God has honoured to be a principal Instrument of this Good 
Work being now removed from them by Sickness before a 
Chh has gathered & Gospel Ordinance Settled among 
them, and yet continuing too infirm to return to his Lab's 
there, and I being also informed of a General Congress 
about this Time of the Chiefs of all the Tribes under the 
Inspection & Superintendensy of the Honle Sir William 
Johnson, when there will likely be a most favourable Oppor- 
tunity to recommend to that Body of Chiefs together the 
Grand Design of Spreading the Gospel of Christ among 
their representative Tribes, and to use Suitable Arguments 
and Motives to induce them to a favourable opinion of the 
same and a hearty concurrence of their Endeavours therein. 

"I have therefore desired the Revd Mr. Jacob Johnson 
of Groton whose praise is in ye [colony?] throughout all 
the Churches to go as Missionary and Supply the place 
which is now vacant by Mr Kirtland's removal from them, 
and to gather & form a Chh in that place according to 
Gospel rule and order and administer the Ordinances of 
Christ among them according to the Directions which he 
has given, and to inspect and Regulate the Schools already 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 2$ 

set up and form others to be supply'd with Masters from 
hence as he shall occasion. And also in conjunctn with Mr 
D. Avery, Missy and Joseph, Thomas, and any other men 
of Influence in the Tribes to make such application to the 
Chiefs of the Nations in ye aforesd congress as he shall 
think with the best advice shall be most likely to Subserve 
the great Design in View, and to use Such Endeavours with 
any of the Tribes in those parts as he shall Judge proper 
and Expedient for that purpose, and bespeake the Favour, 
Countenance and Assistance of Sir William Johnson and 
any others whose Favour and Assistance he may find to be 
needfuU in the Prosecution of the Business of his Mission. 
Commending him to the civilities, kindness and charity of 
all as he shall have occasion and they opportunity for the 
Same, and especially to the Protection, Favour and Blessing 
of Almighty God in whom I hope for the Success of his 
important mission, 

In Testimony and Confirmation of Which I Subscribe, 
Eleazar Wheelock Founder & President of the Indian 
Academy in Lebanon." Dated in Lebanon, the 19th Day of 
Septr A. D., 1768. 

Wheelock had not been apprised of the Fort Stanwix 
Congress, but he learned of it accidentally through some 
Oneida Indians who had visited Lebanon, Conn., and he 
determined to send an agent to attend it. In view of 
Wheelock's already established movement among the In- 
dians and Sir William Johnson's familiarity with the same, 
it seems strange that the baronet had not invited him to send 
a representative. But as seen elsewhere it was not the 
desire of Sir William or the Penns to have Connecticut rep- 
resented at the congress, one of the most important ever 
held with the Indians. 

Mr. Johnson made the journey of 300 miles on horse- 
back in ten days and at Canajoharie he was met by David 
Avery, who had been teaching the Oneidas. He reported 
his arrival to Wheelock as follows : 



26 rev. jacob johnson. 

Avery to Wheelock. 

"Canawarohare, Octbr ist. 1768 
"Revd & Hond Dr, 

"The Reverend Mr Johnson came to this place 29th 
last month with the Fullness of the blessing of the Gospel. 
Was cordially received by the Indians & released their 
minds from some disquietude occasioned by the long absence 
of a minister. He came in good season. Sir Wm & a very 
large number of Gentlemen have been at Fort Stanwix 
about three weeks — the Indians are come & coming, it is 
expected they will all arrive in a week or ten Days. Will 
doubtless be the largest Congress that ever was among the 
Six Nations. I Design by Divine Leave, to accompany the 
Revd Mr Johnson over as soon as the Indians go, and to 
return to New England as soon as the Congress shall be 
ended. 

"Hoping for a continuance of an Interest in the Doctor's 
Prayers, am with all Duty and Humility, Revd & Hond Dr. 
Your much obliged and very humble Servant 

"David Avery.'"' 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Onoida lower Castle Kanawaro'he 
"Octobr 5th 1768 
"Rev d & Dr Sir 

"I am safely arrived here in Good Health (thanks to 
my great & good Protector). I came by the way of Fort 
Stanwix but the Heads of the Nations were not in general 
come together. Onely conferd with Col. Butler & left your 
letter for Sir Wm for He was not then to be seen. I thot 
best to come up to Onoida & confer with Mr Avery & the 
chief men of Onoida For I perceived there was a great 
coldness in Col. Butler & others I conferd with resoecting 
the Propagation of the Gospel among the Six Nations. Was 
then & am more & more confirmed in my opinion that these 
Gentlemen are not in mood to do much towards promoting 
the end you have in view. However if I am mistaken (which 
I will not Absolutely say I am not) it will appear in Sir 
Wms the Govr. of Pennsylvania & New York's conduct at 
the congress where I propose with Mr. Avery & some of 
the Principal men of this town to attend about the middle 
of next week. I suppose it will be soon enough after sd 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 27 

Congress is over that 1 shall write you more full of that & 
every thing relative to the grand affair in agitation. Onely 
thus much at Present I will say if ever there neecld help 
from on high it is now, yea if ever there needd faith in 
the promise it is now, or at least it so appears to me and 
in that promise in particular of our blessed Lord to his 
Apostle Peter 'On this rock I will build my Chh & the gates 
of Hell shall not prevail.' I have tho't the very Pillars of 
Heaven trembled & the Mountain were removing out of 
their places so that there is no Shelter no Safety but in the 
Lord alone. I know not Scarcely whether I had ever a 
greater Sense of it. The Lord increase my Faith. Yea the 
Lord increase yours & every christian's especially the min- 
ister's. I use plainess & freedom for the cause requiring it 
with me to you but the wisdom of the serpent to others. I 
know you will not cease to pray for me & the cause of Christ 
which it is not unlike a ship in the midst of a storm. But 
Christ the great Pilot is in it, whom not onely the Ships 
but winds & seas obey. Having this hope & assurance I 
comfort myselfe & am at peace in my soul & hope that you 
& I may rest and stand in our Lot in the end of the Days. 
But I must not add further at this Time only. Everything in 
the Indian town apprs up to, yea beyond my expectation. 
The greatest danger is from the Mighty Hunters whom the 
Lord well knows, for they are not out of his sight & the 
reptile daughters of the Horse leech who never have enough 
tho they stuff themselves till they burst asunder. 

"May Babel's tower fall into confusion & the stone 
which ye builders reject become the headstone of the corner. 

"I am in all dutiful affection 

Revd & bond Sir yours in Christ . 

"Jacob Johnson.'' 

Jacob Johnson reported his arrival to Dr. Wheelock as 
follows : 

"Fort Stanvvix Oct lo 1768 
"Sr ^^ 

"I have been at Onoida Castle, am now here. Have 
waited on Sr Wm & other gentlemen of which I cannot now 
write. But onely assure you that things are in a most 
critical Scituation, yea wear a very threatening aspect, 
However speciously covered & conceald. The sum of the 



28 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

matter is 'That antecedent to ascertaining the Boundaries 
& Lines betwix the Indian & British claims' a number of 
great and weahhy Gentlemen from New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, Jersey & Virginia Have brought a great sum of Gold 
& Silver with Bateaus of Blankets & other goods in order 
to decoy & prevail with the Onoida & other Indians to sell 
their Lands from the Fort Stanwix to the Lake Ontario &c 
thence in a line down to the Alleganey Ohio & so down or 
near to Fort Pitt &c., the which if they accomplish, as you 
Sr must know, the Principal design or designs of this 
Project you must know what will be the event as to your 
Schools & designs of propagation of the Gospel among the 
Indians. Being Sensible of this (tho' kept as a profound 
secret by the projectors and managers of it) we have more 
privately consulted the Two Chiefs of the Oneidas in order 
to aprise them of this design & if possible to fix in them an 
unchangible resolution & determination upon no consider- 
ation to part with their Lands but Hold them as their Birth 
Rights the great Parent of all things has given them withall, 
showing them the most dangerous consequences & with 
many arguments from fact as well as reason. 

'But yet after all we are not without a great deal of fear 
the Indians will be overcome & made a sacrifice to the ambi- 
tion & avarice of the great Head plotters & Heart haters of 
the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

"Upon a whole view of the Case & state of things here 
(a contract specimen of which I have given) we tho't best 
to send an express to you Sr that you may know what is 
doing, & politically moving to be done, that you may lay it 
before the great Counsellor as we have done in the best 
manner we could & daily do. As also in such a weighty & 
most concerning affair that you would if you think exped- 
ient send your best advice & that the Revd Mr Kirtland 
would come up if his health will admit & you think advis- 
able, all which may possibly be done before the conclusion of 
the Congress which will not likely be desolvd in 3 or 4 weeks 
from the date herof. 

"Yours in all things for Christ's ch & his cause 

"J. Johnson." 

"P.S. 

"Joseph may stay with (if you think fit) till further 
advise. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 29 

"We ma}' hereafter give you an acct of the whole Series 
of things but now onely hint at them as they are as it were 
in Embryo. 

"I shall continue to wait on the Congress & if oppor- 
tunity presents send you farther. 

"In the mean time we dont speak of these thing openly 
or let any one know but fr'ds wherefore Jos. goes for New 
Engd. O pray! pray! pray! as Mr Eliot Apostle to the 
Indns said in a Letter to — [illegible]. 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Fort Stanwix Octobr 17th 1768. 
"Revd & Hond Sir 

"I doubt not but you will be glad to hear from the Con- 
gress. I have sir done every thing I could, both by Prayer, 
Consultation & application. I have consulted Col. Butler & 
others. I have laid the cause before Sir Wm Johnson per- 
sonally and by an address in writing subscribed by David 
Avery and myself e (For Dr. Tho's went home not well) a 
copy of which I enclose which you will please to preserve 
(For I have no other copy & the original is in Sir Wms 
possession) I have opportunity to converse with the chief 
Gentln here as Governor Wm Franklin of The Jersie, Gov- 
ernor Penn, Mr Peters of Philadelpa & others, many others. 
I could be heartily glad you sir was here. You would be 
received most Honbly & affectionately I can assure you. 
Your name is often mentioned with a great deal of Respect 
by Sir Wm Johnson, Govr Franklin & others. 

"Govenr Penn is gone home But before He went I 
took an opportunity to confer with Him about setting up an 
Indian College on the Susquehanna or somewhere there- 
about. He told me He had seen Dr Whittaker [of Nor- 
wich] & his request of a considerable Tract of Land and 
that the afifair was sent Home to the Proprietors. I asked 
Him if He tho't the Proposals woud be granted. He sd 
He tho't not. I asked Him if the Proprietors would not 
part with a tract of Land for that purpose. He sd He 
belivd not as requested. Will they, sd I, upon any terms. 
He sd yes as they sold it to others. Upon no other terms? 
replyd I. He answerd no. He believd not or to that purpose. 
I askd Him if the Proprietors woud not come to some agree- 
ment with the New Engd Purchasers on the Susquehanna. 



30 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

He said yes as they would with any other purchasers. And 
upon no other terms sd I. He answd no. I conferd with 
Mr Peters of Philadelpa upon the subject. He thot great 
care should be taken to choose such a place to set up an Indn 
academic as might not interfere with any other public 
School or occasion discontent or envy or dislike lest it 
shouldnt answer the design and besides He thot few of the 
Indians woud ever do for Missionaries that in general it 
was not worth while to do more for them than to learn them 
to read & write & be industrious &c. 

"I conferd with Sir William upon the same subject 
what his opinion was about it. He thot it a laudable & very 
good design. I asked Him where He thot best to set up 
the school. His Excellency sd He supposed that affair was 
sent Home already and determined. I informed his Excel- 
lency it was now in agitation & preparation to be sent. But 
I supposd not yet gone. I asked Him where he thot the 
most proper place to set it. He replyd He supposed in or 
near Albany. I mentioned Pensylvana. He sd He sup- 
posed the Proprietors wouldnt part with their lands for that 
purpose upon any other Terms than they woud to others. 
T mentioned Kohoss [Coos, N. H.]. He thot that too 
much one side. I mentioned Pittsfield. His Excellency 
askd if they had any considerable of Lands &c for that pur- 
pose. I told his Excellency they woud subscribe in Lands 
and money a thousand pounds & more. He smild and made 
no reply onely that Coll Williams was proprietor there &&c. 
Upon laying the enclosed address before Him when He had 
read it He askd me where I woud have the Bounds of the 
Provinces Restricted. I told him Here especially at the 
Onoidas. He sd that was at Indus election Whether they 
woud part with their Lands or not. At present He coud'nt 
tell no more than I coud where the Division Lines woud 
run. When all the chiefs were come together he shoud 
know and not before and that he shoud be as tender of the 
Indus Interests as I or any other friend coud be to 'em. 
That twas easy for designing men to get away their Land 
by insinuating themselves into their favor together with a 
few Gifts, good words &c., that many, too too many had 
done it. For the Indus in genii valu'd not their Lands & 
much more passd betwixt Him and me alone (which I have 
not time or room to write, for paper is here so scarce that 12 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 3I 

sheets has cost me as much as 2 quire in New Engd & with 
great difficulty I have got so much and usd Halfe of it 
Already). 

"But sd Sir Wm upon the conclusion He should make 
open proclamation of the Doings of the Congress that all 
might know & and in the mean Time that 1 might have 
further opportunity to confer upon these things. And sir 
I must confess that Sir Wm has & does treat me & mankind 
in the most Handsome and genteel manner Imaginable, 
which has endeared Him to me very much tho He Has no 
Grace, yet has no small share of lovely Humanity. 

"But sir on the whole the situation of the Indns with 
respect to their Lands is very ticklish & doubtful. No less 
than 15 thousands Pounds worth of Goods & a vast deal of 
Provision with 4 chests of Gold & Silver weighing not less 
than a barrel weight of Cyder or Pork each is sent as a 
temptation, with Rum, Wine & high Spirits proportionale 
if not to Exceed & great numbers of adventurers from all 
parts especially Albany New York Pennsylva & Virginia & 
many beyond. And besides tis thot the King has a design 
to make a large purchase of the natives for some pious use. 
But this is kept as a secret which has not yet transpird and 
known to onely a very few. I must leave you as I am, to 
guess in this matter what it portends but we may be pretty 
sure something to the chh of England or some Dignatary. 

"You will likely sir have a more full acct. & view of 
these things at the close of the Congress wch I am apt to 
think will be about the Latter end of next week it may be 
not before the week after. 

I am yours in all Christian Bonds &c &c 
Jacob W. Johnson." (His. Docs. N. Y., iv, 244.) 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Fort ^tanwix Oct. 18 1768 
"Revd & Dr Sir 

"Abraham being delay'd till this morning as I walked 
abroad seing the natives & others — I could not but make 
these reflections — Good God ! How deplorable is the state 
of these Nations not onely of Indns but bordering inhabi- 
tants who seem to be very much Ignorant of Israel's God 
of Christ the great and onely Saviour of mankind. My 
bowels coud do no less than yearn over them. O that the 
light of the glorious Gospel may shine forth among men. 



32 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

Oh Good God & compassionate Saviour must they remain 
as lost Sheep. Do they not many of them belong to thy 
Fold & oh may not the time be near, or now come, to call 
them home into thy Family & put them among thy sons 
& daughters. While I tho't & do think upon this moveing 
subject my Eyes gush out with Tears & my Heart is rowled 
3ver & out of its place. Oh if it be the will of my God I 
must I will stay some Time among them if not spend even 
(he Remnant of my Days Preaching Christ & salvation to 
ihem. Dr Sr it seems to me now & then there is a great 
ivork yet to be done here. Oh that these meditations & 
expectations may not be a morning cloud that passeth away. 

"These things will appear one way or the other I believe 
(n a short Time oh may we always keep the hand the Heart 
of Prayer & give the Lord no Rest till he come & make 
Jerusalem a joy & praise in the whole earth. But I must not 
add onely that I am yours in all affection 

'7- W. Johnson.'' 

'T send this by Abraham Simon, whom I recommend 
to you if on examination you think best to put Him into 
^our School. I hope the Lord may incline his heart not 
onely to desire to learn human things but Divine, that He 
may in some way serve the Interest of Christ's Kingdom. 
You will perhaps think proper to try Him & retain Him till 
you are satisfied whether it may be worth while to bestow 
Labor & cost upon Him for the purpose aforesd — or an} 
other." 

The following, which was on a different sheet, appar- 
ently came about this time, but whether a part of the same 
letter there is no indication, save that the fold of the sheets 
is almost exactly identical : 

"Mr. Kirtland (if his Health would admit Him to 
come) would be very welcome to the Indus & many others 
who often mention his name & enquire after Him. Your 
son [Ralph] also whose name Sir Wm has once & again 
mentioned with a sensible respect. You will please to send 
your best advise as far as possible and Mr Kirtland if he 
can possible come. And let us by all means as far as 
possible know the real state of Boston for we are all in 
pain to know. It is a trying Time here in many respects. 
O I need the wisdom of an Angel of God. I never knew 
how sensible I needed helpe from God on high as I 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 33 

have done since I came here & yet am sensible & I think 
more & more & tho Mr David Avery & Dr. Thomas &c 
are in some lesser things helpful the main stress of all 
lyes upon me. I had need to have the very Sholders of 
Sampson & the wisdom of Solomon and meekness of Moses. 
I am not able nor ever shall that I know of be able to tell 
you what I have endured at Times both in Body and Soul. 
But O forever blessed be God I have learnt more in some 
respects than ever I did before of man of whom Christ our 
Saviour bids us beware. To approve myselfe to God who 
trys my heart & promote his kindom & glory this is my 
great concern of which I cant think or write without a flood 
of Tears the Cause of which God almighty knows. But in 
paper & ink you cannot know if it be indeed possible in any 
other way on this side the Eternal world to know. There is 
need of strong cryes and tears to him yt is help. I have had 
some agonies of soul which none but they that have felt can 
tell. Onely this I may say that virtue is in as great danger 
as Sampson's seven locks were of Delila's Sheers, Daniel's 
life in the Lyon's Denn or the three Children of the Fiery 
furnace. I need watch & pray every hour, yea every moment 
that I enter not into Temptation, blot my sacred Character 
& mar the work & Cause of God in my hand. 

"Johannes that went up with D. Avery this Instant 
returned, & Let me know Thomas is better but that David 
Avery had a fit of the Feaver & ague. He proposes to come 
down ( if He is able) when the Onadagaus, Senecas & oth- 
ers that way come which is supposed will be the latter end 
of this week so that the business of the Congress will be 
in Agitation next week & likely concluded the week after 
at lest we hope it will, when David Avery & 3 or 4 Indus 
will set out immediately for New Engd by whom (Bene 
placito Dei) you will know both by word and writeing what 
I can now onely by conjecture & uncertainty write you. 

"I should Sr be glad you woud let me know the Re- 
ports in brief concerning the places tho't of for erecting 
a college and by no means Sir make a Representation to the 
Board of trust till the Conclusion of this important Congress 
& you have Sir heard farther from me." 

But let us go back a little. On Jacob Johnson's arrival 
at Fort Stanwix he and Avery found in waiting with Sir 
William Johnson, Governor William Franklin of New Jer- 



34 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

sey, Governor John Penn of Pennsylvania, Col. John Butler 
and a number more of notables from those provinces and 
from Virginia with a great sum of gold and silver and 
numerous boat loads of blankets and other goods, their 
purpose being to obtain from the Indians the cession of a 
large tract of their lands, as Chase says, "under cover of a 
settlement of boundary." 

Sir William Johnson was a figure unique in American 
history. Born in Ireland, he was at the age of twenty-three 
called by his uncle to America to superintend the settlement 
of a large tract of land in the Mohawk Valley. Johnson 
made his home there, learned the Indian language and 
acquired an influence over the Six Nations greater than 
that which any other man ever enjoyed. The English Gov- 
ernment made him superintendent of Indian affairs, colonel 
of militia and a baronet. — (Chase History of Dartmouth 
College. ) 

Mr. Johnson addressed the baronet as follows : 

"Fort Stanwix, 
"Fry day evening, Oct. 7, 1768. 
"Sir: I am just now returned to the Fort. I should 
have come sooner, but incidental things prevented. I shall 
be ready (Bene placito Dei) to wait on your Excellency on 
the morrow at what time and place your Excellency shall 
please to order my attendance. 

"Jacob Ws. Johnson. 
"To Sir William Johnson." 

This letter is No. 180 in vol. 16 of the "Sir William 
Johnson MSS. papers at Albany, N. Y. 

In another letter Mr. Johnson asks the baronet to in- 
form the Indian chiefs that he was prevented by illness 
from attending the opening of the council. He regrets that 
his absence has been misconstrued by Monsieur Montour 
to prejudice the Indians not only against him, but against 
the Protestant religion. He asks the baronet to let them 
know that he is a sure friend of the Indians and especially 
interested in their souls' salvation. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 35 

He also on Oct. 17 addresses a communication to Sir 
William Johnson referring to Mr. Wheelock's project for 
propagating the gospel among the Indians, and asks the 
baronet to encourage the design. Sir William is asked "as 
a tender father to these perishing Indians" to prevent them 
from removing from their lands, as such removal would 
frustrate the plan of propagating the gospel among them. 
To that end the baronet is asked to recommend to the heads 
and chiefs Dr. Wheelock's educational plan, and to give 
Rev. Jacob Johnson and his colleague, Rev. David Avery, 
personal audience with the Indians. 

So slow were the Indians in assembling, that events 
dragged along tediously. A fortnight later, under date of 
Fort Stanwix, Oct. 30, Mr. Johnson addresses a note to 
"Sir William Johnson, Gov. Wm. Franklin, Col. Graham, 
Col. John Butler and other respectable gentlemen interested 
and concerned at their congress." He informs them of his 
presence there in behalf of Dr. Wheelock in the cause of 
propagating the gospel among the Indians. He alludes to 
the labors of Dr. Wheelock, made possible by charitable 
benefactions on the part of the King and the nobility of 
England, and fears that if the Indians be allowed to scatter 
as a result of parting with their lands, that the spread of 
the gospel may be hindered. He asks that a door may be 
kept open where the work of preaching and teaching has 
been carried on, that the missionaries may know where to 
find the Indians. 

Mr. Johnson also addressed a letter to Sir William 
thanking him for having forbidden the giving of the 3,000 
Indians intoxicating spirits at so critical a juncture. He 
expressed his fear that the Indians, especially the Senecas, 
were armed, while the whites at the fort and in the vicinity 
were naked and defenseless. He said he had heard there 
were priests among the Indians who held it meritorious to 
kill heretics, as they considered Protestants, "and our sins 
and provocations may incense heaven to let them loose on 



36 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

US unawares, if the utmost care and precaution be not taken, 
which your excellency in his superior wisdom will doubtless 
well consider and give orders accordingly. As affairs wear 
a most threatening aspect at this juncture, I think it a time 
to be serious. As I am a seer, I may be knowing to some 
things your excellency may not, which occasion me thus to 
write." 

It will be remembered that it was the Senecas who 
destroyed Wyoming ten years later. 

This expression, 'T am a seer," and others like it indi- 
cate that Mr. Johnson thought his sacred office conferred 
upon him some occult power of peering into the mysterious 
or supernatural. This idea always clung to him and in the 
last year of his life he had some mysterious premonition of 
the date of his death, and so real was it that he not only 
made the usual preparations for dissolution, but dug his 
own grave. He died on the date foretold. Many years 
later the author of this paper and his father, Wesley John- 
son, were present at the opening of the grave near the 
Memorial Church and the removal of the bones to Hollen- 
back Cemetery, where the}^ now rest. 

The fact that Jacob Johnson was a Connecticut man 
was sufficient to bring him into disfavor with the Pennsyl- 
vania proprietaries. Indeed, Conrad Weisser, the cele- 
brated Indian interpreter, much employed in the Pennsyl- 
vania interest, wrote to the governor (Miner, p. 94) warn- 
ing him to look out for "that wicked priest of Cancjoharry, 
lest he defeat our designs." The result was he was ex- 
cluded, as he says in an affidavit in Miner's History, p. 97, 
from the various consultations with the chiefs. Miner also 
gives an affidavit from Rev. Samuel Kirkland (Miner, p. 
98), who sets forth the part taken by Mr. Johnson, and the 
general facts of the treaty, and the questionable methods 
employed to secure the consent of the Indians, in repudiat- 
ing the 1754 sale to Connecticut and in making a new sale 
to Pennsylvania. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 37 

While Jacob Johnson was not permitted to participate 
in the council with the Indians, he was recognized socially 
and was a participant in a dinner given by the baronet. He 
made a speech there which had the ring of true patriotism, 
but which offended some of the baronet's guests. 

The people were already beginning to clamor for lib- 
erty and for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Jacob Johnson 
was an impulsive man and when roused was fearless of 
consequences. So in this stronghold of royalty at Fort 
Stanwix he did not hesitate to voice the cry for freedom, and 
to warn the mother country of the impending storm which 
was to sweep away her American colonies. His fearless 
words, prophetic of the struggle for liberty, stamp him as 
one of the earliest as well as one of the bravest of the sons 
of the Revolution. This lofty patriotism characterized his 
whole life, and it was appropriate that Charles Miner, the 
historian of Wyoming, should have prefaced his sketch of 
Mr. Johnson with these words from Barlow : 

"God and my country" through the eventful strife, 

Such was the glorious motto of his life." 

This is what he said at the dinner as recorded by himself : 

"I drink the Health of King George HI of Great 
Britain, &c. — comprehending New Eng'd & all the British 
Colonies & provinces in North America. And I mean to 
drink such a Health to his British Majesty, when occasion 
serves, so long as his Royal Majesty shall govern his 
British & American subjects according to Magna Charta, 
or the great charter of English Liberties, and hears the 
prayers of his American Subjects, when properly laid before 
him. But in case his British Majesty' (which God in great 
mercy prevent) should proceed contrary to charter rights 
& Privileges, & Govern us with a Rod of Iron, & the mouth 
of Cannons and make his Little Finger thicker than his 
Father's loyns, and utterly refuse to hear or consider our 
Humble prayers ; then, & in that case I should think it my 
indispensable Duty to seek a retreat elsewhere ; or joyn 
with my Countrymen in Forming a New Empire in 
America, distinct from, & independent of, the British Em- 



3^ REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

pire : agreeable to a project, & predicted Plan in a late essay, 
Intitled 'the Power and Grandure of Great Britain, 
Founded on the Liberties of the Colonies &c.', which in 
Substance agrees with my mind in these things, & if I am 
not mistaken, with every true son of Liberty." 

He was too much of a patriot to suit the King's repre- 
sentative, the Baronet, and too much interested in the wel- 
fare of the Indians to suit the Penns. So he was excluded 
from the council. 

Sir William's reasons for excluding him and for pre- 
venting the delivering of his speech to the Indians are told 
by him in a letter to General Gage (Doc. His. N. Y.), in 
which he said : 

'The New Englanders have had missionaries for some 
time among the Oneidas and Oquages and I was not ignor- 
ant that their old pretensions to the Susquehanna lands was 
their real object, tho' religion was their assumed object. 
Two New England missionaries [Johnson and Avery] 
came up, one of which was strongly recommended to me by 
Dr. Wheelock and did all in their power to prevent the 
Oneidas, whose property part of the Susquehanna is, from 
agreeing to any line. They even had the face, in opposition 
to His Majesty's commands and the desire of the colonies, 
to memorial me, praying that the Indians might not be 
allowed to give up far to the west or north, but to reserve it 
for the purpose of religion. And they publicly declared to 
several gentlemen there, that they had taken infinite pains 
with the Indians to obstruct the line and would continue to 
do so. I think you should see in what manner the govern- 
ment's favors and indulgences are made use of by these 
gentry, of which I could give many instances, being pos- 
sessed of their secret instructions and many other very ex- 
traordinary papers." 

The correspondence and papers of Sir William John- 
son have been collected at Albany and the same are easily 
acessible. There is no trace of these "secret instructions 
and many other very extraordinary papers" which the 
baronet asserted he had in his possession. 

The congress ended early in November. As long as it 
was in session liquor was withheld, a fact which had 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 39 

brought out a letter of appreciation from Jacob Johnson to 
ihe baronet, and harmony and decency prevailed. When 
all was over, but before the rum was served to the Indians, 
Sir William and his family hurriedly left in the night and 
advised all whites to leave as soon as possible. Within two 
hours after the liquor was given out the community was 
filled with drunkenness and hell seemed broken loose. Sev- 
eral were killed. It was Sunday too. 

Now that the congress was over, Mr. Johnson was 
compelled to report to Wheelock that nothing had been 
accomplished for the school, that the petition for aid for his 
school had resulted in failure. 

As O. J. Harvey, Esq., states in his admirable "History 
of Wilkes-Barre :" 

"The Pennsylvanians were successful, and on the very 
day that the Fort Stanwix treaty was signed six sachems 
of the Six Nations — one from each of the several tribes — 
executed to Thomas and William Penn a deed for all the 
lands within the bounds of their Province not heretofore 
purchased from the Indians, and so far as the general boun- 
dary with the King had then been settled. This purchase 
included most of the lands claimed by The Susquehanna 
Company and The Delaware Company, under their respec- 
tive deeds from the Indians. The consideration paid by the 
Penns for the Fort Stanwix deed was 10,000 dollars, and 
two of the signers of the deed were Tyanhasare, or Abra- 
ham, of the Mohawk tribe, and Senosies, of the Oneida 
tribe, who had signed in July, 1754, the deed to The Sus- 
uehanna Company." 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Fort Stanwix November 6th 1768 

"Revd Sir, 

"The business of the Congress is now compleated, all 
is in confusion. Mr Cleveland, Avery, Mathes will give you 
a narrative. I expected they would have accompanyd me to 
Canawarohere this Day & so omitted writing till then. But 
they viz Mr Kirtland &c suddenly changed their purpose. 
I have not time to write you for they are parting. Onely 



40 REV, JACOB JOHNSON. 

that we have all done what we coud to forward the glorious 
design you have Sir in view. But the business of the Con- 
gress being of such a nature it seemed to answer no great 
purpose at Present. However I believe it is not time lost 
to any of us & I hope not in genl to the Cause. It may be 
seed sown in Darkness which may in God's Time Spring up. 
I wish I had time to write more at large & to the purpose. 
But I am hurried to the utmost. If it be the Divine will I 
shall write by Mr Kirtland in short time. I thank 3'^ou 
heartily for your kind Letters & all your expressions of love. 
My enclosed Letter please to forward. 

"I am with all due respect yours affectionately 

"Jacob Johnson.'' 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Oneida, Decembr 28th 1768 
"Rev & lion. Sr 

Your christian & very kind Letter (Dated Lebanon 
Nov. 21) I received For which & all other Tokens of your 
Friendship, I return you my Sincere & hearty thanks. And 
pray the Blessing of Heaven, may long rest on your Person, 
Family and School, and desird success accompany all your 
undertakings, to promote the Cause & Kingdom of Christ 
on earth. I have. Sir, done all within my power, to promote, 
& set forward, this great, & glorious design, since I came 
this way. As to what pass'd at the Congress relative here- 
unto (either as to my Character or Conduct) I desire noth- 
ing more, I ask for nothing more, nor indeed wish for any- 
thing more than to exhibit that progress, with the Facts, & 
doings theron attendant, in their own proper light, which 
(thanks to God) I am well able to do (without boasting). 
And at our next Interview, I will (if it please God) let you 
fully into that affair. And I doubt not you will be satisfied. 
I did everything that was proper to be done, or Indeed coud 
be done. As to any ill consequences touching yourselfe Sir, 
or the Laboring Cause, I am by no means whatsoever suffi- 
cient to provide against 'em ; but most humbly, & meekly 
submit them to Him, who brings about all things, according 
to the Council of his own will, & finally for his own glory, 
& Zion's weal, and prosperity; and without all doubt, or 
controversie to me, issue the present dependent Cause (as 
far as it respects my character or Conduct) to the same 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 4I 

happy & glorious purposes: 'For He will (sooner or later) 
bring forth my judgment as the light, & my Righteousness 
as the noonday.' As to the present situation I am here with 
Mr Kirkland most of the time; Preparing and ripening 
things for action; and waiting a favorable opportunity for 
embodying, & building up a chh. here ; tho I have not been 
favored with an Interpreter (onely occasionally & Provi- 
dentially) which in some respects has been a great disad- 
vantage to me, in others perhaps an advantage, for it has 
put me the more upon studying their Language, customs, 
&c, and perhaps, I shall be able to speak to them in their 
own Language, before I leave them; tho I expect an Intet- 
than regain my seemingly lost time. Upon receiving your 
last letter, I felt much concerned, lest you Sir, shoud think 
hard of me, thro' some inuendo's or false suggestion from 
some quarter or other and tho't whether it might not (on 
the whole) be best to come down to New Engd and satisfie 
your mind Sir in those things; but consulting & advising 
with Mr K — d, He thinks it will by no means do at this 
Time. Mr Kirkland will write to you also and you Sir 
will please to give me your mind farther upon the return 
of Dr Thomas I am Sir as clay in the hands of the great 
Potter I have no claim upon the Deity, But for Christ's 
sake; & none upon you Sir, but in Christ, & for his sake, 
and the cause of his kingdom, & glory; to which (tho' un- 
worthy) I submit myself e ; & am sir, with great esteem, & 
hearty affection & brotherly Friendship, yours in all things 

"Jacob Johnson.'' 



To Dr Eleazr Wheelock 
Lebanon 
"N. B. I was going to have given you a view of the 
State & process of ye Congress in writing but perhaps it 
may be better to do it by a personal Representation at a 
private Interview If it be the will of God I return to see 
you Sr." 

The above letter of December 28 drew out the follow- 
ing declaration of confidence, and about the same time 
Kirkland wrote to Wheelock praising Johnson's work as a 
teacher : 



42 rev. jacob johnson. 

Wheelock to Johnson. 

"Lebanon 30th Jany. 1769. 
"Revd. & dear Sir, 

"Your refreshing and brotherly letters, by Thomas 
came safe — You need give yourself no uneasiness at all 
about ye affairs of ye Congress ; all is right, & well. I 
han't so much concern about it, as to spend time to hear 
it if you were here * * * 

"Eleazar Wheelock." 

"Oneida Janry 9th 1769. 
"Revd & Hond Sr 

"The enclosed has lain some Time waiting an opperty 
of Conveyance which has been unexpectedly hinderd by the 
rains & floods here & at the German Flats. But now we 
think the way passable so I transmit by Peter* and Dr. Thos 
I believe Sir tis the Mind & Will of God I continue here, 
otherwise I had returned before now I believe God has 
something for me to do here before I return I think not 
onely by Mr K'ds desire but some light I have had by the 
Word & Spirit of God It will not do to leave him here 
alone in his present feeble state of health both of body & 
mind tho blessed be God he seems to be rather gaining his 
health every way than declining and it may be will be con- 
tinued a Light in this wilderness where Light is so much 
wanting You will sir always consider him (& if you please 
me too) as but clay & spittle or earthen vessels in the hands 
of the great Master builder and rather expect great things 
from him than us who have no strength but our eyes are to 
the Lord alone for help. 

"I trust I hope in the Lord I shall yet praise him for 
sending me here, yea yt yourselfe will too, & that all em- 
barrassments will give way to the pure Light & truth of 
the Gospel in God's time and that there will be a perfect 
harmony regained and long [illegible] betwixt all that wish 
well to Zion & are laboring to promote the glorious Cause 
of the Gospel 



*"Good Peter," Domine Peter, Peter the Priest, was an Oneida 
chief, born on the Susquehanna River, educated, and the best orator 
among the Six Nations. He was one of Mr. Kirkland's deacons. He 
d. 1792. 

"Dr. Thos." was a Christian Oneida deacon. The abbreviation 
may mean "dear Thomas" or "Deacon Thomas." 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 43 

"I am with great Respect & affection 
"Yours for Christ's sake 

"J. Johnson." 
"N. B. Peter has servd very well for an Interpreter 
since He came here I propose to get an Interpreter for 
about 2 months & if I stay any longer interprit for myselfe 
Mr Kirkland has made surprising proficiency in their Lan- 
guage so that He can preach & pray as occasion calls in their 
own tongue." 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Kannaqjohare Jany 13th 1769 
"Revd & Hond Sir 

"Yours I received (pr T— r) For which & all other 
Expressions of your Goodness & beneficence I return you 
my thanks & pray ev'ry blessing of Heaven upon you sir, 
yours & all your undertakings to Serve the Cause & king- 
dom of the Redeemer. 

"As to the affair of the Congress I am well afraid you 
never had it represented in its true and genuine Light And 
I can by no means do it in a Short Letter Onely this I 
will say I doubt not you Sir will be fully satisfied my con- 
duct was as good as the nature & circumstances of things 
woud admit of. I have reflected upon it with the greatest 
severity I was able & cannot see where I coud have mended 
it or anybody else except they had been unfaithful to their 
trust which I presume woud think the wrong way of mend- 
ing As to any ill consequences arising to you sir or the 
School I must leave to the issue of Divine providence which 
I doubt not on the whole will be best. 

"As to our affairs at Oneida we are obliged to move 
slowly with 'em at present for reasons too long to write. 
Were you here you woud be satisfied & will be when I see 
you or Mr Kirkland whom I can't nor dar'nt leave. We 
keep Sabbath at Kannaquajohare Expect Johannes will go 
with me to Oneida for a short season perhaps a month or 6 
weeks I hope by then thro' ye goodness of God to interprit 
for myselfe That I may lose no time but rather regain the 
time We propose to embody the chh upon Dr Thos return 
& for several Reasons can't well do it sooner I have Sir sent 
a pacquet of Letters directed to you Sr most of which 
Letters are to the Ministers round about to desire their 



44 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

remembrance &c and to sundry Friends in Groton new Lon- 
don &c some compos [itions?] in verse to my children &c. 
I shall finally deliver the sense of all to you sir viva voce & 
by my journals if the will of God be so Mr K — d writes to 
you more at large on some things All our ways are before 
the eyes of the Lord who tryeth our paths These afifairs 
meet with many difificulties which I can't write even in vol- 
umes Were you sir to go on a mission you woud then see 
& feel what you do but hear of at a distance but never can 
realize without experience any more sir than a woman that 
never brought forth can realize what are the pains of child- 
bearing It is not be wondered at that such as go on a mis- 
sion have been discouraged or their Constitutions broke, 
especially when young and unexperienced one older & more 
seasoned woud undoubtedly wear out tho' it may not be so 
fast I have had the least tryal for the Time been onely 
preparing for the Service & yet I am told a good deal 
of my flesh is worn away by those who saw me when I 
went up & now see me again I expect to be worn down 
till I can tell all my bones tho I am as careful of my health 
as the affair will admit of Mr K — d I believe woud have 
dy'd (& will yet for ought I know) tho I am with him You 
will Sir write your mind farther by Dr Thos. 

My love to all your [a word here not legible]. 

"J. J-N." 

"N. B. my Pacquet of letters were accidentally left at 
Oneida — didn't expect to see them but they were brought 
along when I had about Vz wrote this, otherwise I should 
not have wrote it just so You will easily understand the 
matter & qualifie things if you are so lucky as to read my 
writing Look through the Rough bark & you will see all 
things sound & good But stick & be pricked and offended 
with the burr and you will never see or eat the nut The 
fool believes every word but the wise look well to other 
goings look not to the outward appearance but weigh all in 
the Scales of Truth. 

"Aly rideing beast I send down by Peter because she 
can't be kept at Oneida and her keeping thro' the Winter 
woud be too Dear here [Canajoharie]. You will please to 
send her down by the first opportunity to Groton or other- 
wise as you think best the ways are so extreme bad here to 
ride that 'tis to go on foot in general better, especially thro' 
the woods." 



rev. jacob johnson. 45 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"German Flatts Jany i6 1769 
"Revd Hond Sir 

"I am now on my return from Kannajohare where I 
preached yester Day. I had Joseph Brant for my Interpre- 
ter who performed to my surprise Johannes was by, but 
declined Serving tho' I beHeve He might have done it well 
enough had he been well, tho on the whole he promisd to be 
at Oneida the next Sabbath when & where I hope he will 
answer the Intention at lest for 3 or 4 Sabbaths while Mr 
K — d is absent at Sir Wms & down at Skanactady &c 
Partly for the sake of his health & partly to get some neces- 
saries of Life. 

"There is to be another Congress in about a month at 
Mr Shoenmakers where Sir Wm the govr N. York Col. 
Krahan and Other Gentn will meet the Heads & principals 
of the Indian Nations to complete what was left unfinished 
at the Late congress But Sir such meetings dont seem to 
be very Favourable to the far greater & more Interesting 
concerns of the Gospel The buyers of Oxen, Farms &c 
dont lend an ear to the Gospel entertainments as you Sir 
know well was the Case while Christ was on earth & is not 
altered to this Day 

"You will consider whether it will be worth while to 
address Sir Wm or any other Genn on such an occasion in 
Case you have an opportunity of transmitting Letters &c 

'T believe Sir the great medium of Propagating the 
Gospel among the Indians must be apostolic preaching of it 
to them and that not by the Might and Strength of Human 
Authority or Recommendation but by the Light & Influence 
of the Holy Ghost the way it made its progress at first 
since & ever will do The Indus themselves & even the 
Chiefs of them seem to be not a little sensible of this & 
the other human Schemes will be to little purpose How- 
ever I submit all to the direction of Heaven & am Sir yours 
in Christ 

"J. J N.- 

It was charged that the failure of Wheelock's project 
was due to what had been said and done by Jacob Johnson 
at Fort Stanwix. Perhaps in his ardor to safeguard the 
Indians from the encroachments of the land grabbers he 



46 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

did go too far and in doing so alienated Sir William John- 
son, yet Wheelock assured him in a letter, January 30, 1769, 
that he was satisfied with his course at Fort Stanwix : 

"Your refreshing and brotherly letters came safe. You 
need give yourself no uneasiness about ye aiTair of ye Con- 
gress All is right and well." (Supra.) 

In view of this endorsement of Mr. Johnson's course 
Dr. Wheelock's subsequent harsh words about Jacob John- 
son when writing an apologetic letter to the baronet may 
be overlooked. To lose the approval of King George, Lord 
Dartmouth and other noble patrons of the school was 
enough to make any man feel sore, even the good Dr. 
Wheelock. 

As far as the Fort Stanwix boundary line was con- 
cerned it was a keen disappointment to Jacob Johnson, as 
it threw his beloved Oneidas into the Indian country, the 
very thing he had sought to prevent. The boundary adopted 
started from the point where the Ohio River empties into 
the Mississippi (southern limit of Illinois), passed up the 
Ohio to Fort Pitt (present Pittsburg), thence up the Alle- 
ghany to Kittaning, Pa., thence directly east to the West 
Branch of the Susquehanna River to where Bald Eagle 
Creek empties in. Here the line was naturally making for 
the junction of the two branches of the Susquehanna at 
present Sunbury, but as this would throw the much coveted 
Wyoming region into the Indian country, the line was so 
deflected northward as to strike the Susquehanna at present 
Towanda. Thus the Penns were able to keep Wyoming 
outside the Indian domain. The line having skirted round 
Wyoming, passed northward to Owego, then east and north 
to a point just east of Oneida Lake. This threw all the 
tribes except the Mohawks into the Indian country. For 
the details of the line as stated by the deed of 1768, together 
with a contemporary map by Guy Johnson, see Documen- 
tary History of New York, i, 377. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 47 

Kirkland placed a high value on Jacob Johnson's ser- 
vices, for he wrote to Wheelock, December 29, 1768: "Mr. 
Johnson should continue if an interpreter can be procured. 
He has got ye very notion and method of instructing In- 
dians, which is one-half of the battle." 

Writing from Kannaquajoharie, January 13, 1769, Mr. 
Johnson mentioned that he had sent a packet of letters for 
friends in Groton, New London, etc., and some composi- 
tions in verse to his children. He alludes to a journal which 
he was preparing for Wheelock, but it has not been pre- 
served. 

In his letter from German Flats, January 16, 1769, he 
says he preached at Kannajoharrie the day before, and that 
he had Joseph Brant for his interpreter. Brant had been 
a pupil at Wheelock's Indian school and he was the warrior 
who nine year later was desolating the Pennsylvania fron- 
tier with torch and tomahawk. Most of the earlier his- 
torians charged Brant with being the leader of the Indians 
in the battle of Wyoming in 1778, but it is now certain that 
this was an error, though his cruelties at other points on 
the frontier were no less atrocious. 

Here occurs a break in the Dartmouth letters. The 
next shows that Mr. Johnson returned from his mission in 
April, 1769. A letter to Wheelock indicates the poverty of 
the time. He says he was absent from home seven months, 
during which time he traveled on horseback and on foot 
nearly 1,000 miles. He felt that the sum of £30, in addition 
to a small sum he had already received, would be reasonable. 
At that time he had seven children, and "several of them 
could never go to meeting for want of clothing." He tells 
Wheelock he "would not thus have exposed our own pov- 
erty and the people's penury among whom we live" were 
he not driven to it by necessity. 

In June, 1769, a letter to Wheelock indicates that Jacob 
Johnson was troubled over the perils which threatened the 
country. "The times look threatening at home and abroad. 



48 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

Some great adventure seems to be near. The nation and 
land seem ripening fast for destruction if sovereign grace 
does not interpose. It will likely be troublesome, if not 
dangerous, for the missionaries among the Indians this 
summer. The Oneidas expect war and we hear that foreign 
Indians are mustering for that purpose about and beyond 
Detroit. The quadruple alliance carries an ominous aspect. 
But God will overrule all for Zion's good." 

Johnson to Wheelock. 

"Groton, Conn., May 3d 1769 
"Rev & bond sir 

"I proposed to have been at L — n [Lebanon] and 
Settled accts respecting my mission to Onoida eer now But 
things falling out in D. Providence divers ways have hith- 
erto forbid, my Family unwell my second Daughter dan- 
gerously ill & many things to attend & my horse failing 
& none yt will do to be had I woud have come up this 
week but one way or another hindered If I can I will come 
up the beginning of next week but lest I shoud not as I 
am afraid I cant, things being as they are with me, I think 
it best to send you a copy of accts of what money I received 
& how laid out which you sir or your Bookkeeper may see 
in the enclosed paper As to my Reward I shoud ask 
nothing more than what I have receivd did not the neces- 
sitys of my family call for it, if not as a debt of hire yet as 
a reward of Charity to cover their nakedness and stay their 
hunger Some of which & more than 10 years old never 
had but one pair of shoes in their life Several of them 
never coud go to meeting for want of clothing and but one 
out of 7 can go to at once to meeting for want of decent 
clothing. I shoud not thus have exposed our own poverty 
& the people's penury among whom we live but to let you 
know sir I don't ask or desire anything for the sake of 
filthy Lucre but pure necessity which has been & is very 
humbling & cruciating to my mind, even to my soul. As 
for money I don't want much. 5 or 6£ to pay some out 
standing debts the rest at Mr Brimmer by your order for 
clothing to cover my family that they may not suffer & may 
go to meeting & School which they rarely do for want of 
Clothing & often suffer for want of other necessaries of 



REV. JACOB JOHXSOX. 49 

Life which I am sorry to speak of but the painful sensation 
extorts it out of my mouth As to the sum of what may 
be tho't Reasonable in my case (who dont expect or desire 
great things in this life) I have tho't of the addition to 
what I have received of about 3o£. 

"I was from my House calling & business from the 
17th of September 1768 to 7th of April 1769, the bigger part 
of seven months, in which time I travelld on horse back & 
foot nearest one thousand mile & never was one day idle but 
was either studying for the Indians, praying for them or 
preaching to or conversing with them by an Interpreter or 
in their own Language which I was able in some measure 
to do before I came away and were I to be with them about 
3 months longer I doubt not but I coud speak their lange 
compleat, I mean the Onoida & in 6 months more or less 
all the langages of the 6 Nations which appear to me to be 
but a different dialect of one Language, the mohawk & 
oneida are the same word for word only the R in mohawk 
is sounded arrh in Onoida arth as for instance Rogarri i. e. 
mv Father in Mohawk Rougharre in the Oneida ^illegible]. 

"I think it greatly necessary that the Missionaries to 
the Indians learn their Language or not pretend to go 
among them I believe sir you woud be sensible of it to a 
high degree were you to go as a Missionary among them. 
This I know I was beyond what I coud conceive of before 
I believe sir in ordinary a faithful Missionary woud do 
more in 7 months by speaking their langauage than 7 or 
17 year by an Interpreter However I believe it best to 
Instruct them & especially their children in the English 
tongue as fast as may be & in the mean time for the Mis- 
sionaries to learn their language as fast as possible 

"I have much more to say on these things but I pass 
them over to your tho'ts sir. As to my reward sir if you 
think me any way unreasonable bring it down as low as 
you please & if I am griv'd I will not be offended, but if 
sir you think me moderate as my necessities are, send an 
order to Mr Brimmer or who you please so that I may by 
a line or a word know or the the order to me to take of 
things I need in Mr Such a one's shop to the amount of 20 
or 25£ in goods & 5 or 6i in Cash I shall acknowledge the 
favour & bless God from whose hand all good things of this 
life come & more especially those better things yt belong to 



50 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

the after life I am sir with great sincerity your very much 
obhged & humble sert 

"J- Johnson." 
"P. S. 

"Sir If you have an opportunity by your son or other- 
wise to send the enclosed to Oneida I shall covuit it a favour 
There is nothing private in't no not in the few Lines wrote 
in Indian you may read it if you please & seal & send it. 

"My sincerest Love & good will to your Son. May 
God Almighty be with & succeed him in his mission if he 
goes & all others." 

Johnson to Wheelock. 
"Rev & Hon. "Groton Mav .13. 1769 

"Sir 
"I suppose you have received some Letters with the 
Reasons of my not coming to Lebanon, s as I had intended 
my Family most of 'em are unwell & my 2d Daughter in 
a critical State of Life & other things so with me, that my 
Time is wholly took up & several things yet to do of impor- 
tance that I can't yet attend to I saw Mr Huntington 
(whom you mentioned to me when at Lebanon) who in- 
forms me that He and a School-master are to go soon for 
Oneida & the Indn Country Perhaps as things are Cir- 
cumstanced it [might?] be left at present (till you sir see 
further) to employ more than one Missionery (besides Mr 
K — d) & a Schoolmaster & perhaps Mr Huntington (as 
things now are) may do best to go He is indeed young, & 
has not had much time, or advantage to get acquaintance 
in these affairs but being, I hope, honestly & heartily inclined 
to serve the Redeemer, in this most important cause, He 
may be succeeded and blest in the undertaking There are 
many difficulties, & dangers, attending of it especially to 
one unacquainted with the Indn Language, manners &c 
But God is able to do all things & even out of weakness to 
ordain strength I believe Sir it would be best (if possible) 
for one of the Schoolmasters to go as an Interpreter to Mr 
Huntn for he will be put to difficulty otherwise to get an 
Interpreter and moreover if Mr Htn proposes to spend his 
Life among the Indus, to be sure to give his Mind to Learn 
the Language ; the advantage of it is inconceivably great to 
a Missionary Next to the Grace of God it is the better 
halfe of a Missionarys qualifications to do service in the 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 51 

cause. I coucl wish that all & every one that think of doing 
service as Missionaries among the Indians woud give them- 
selves to the Learning of their Language as one most neces- 
sary antecedent qualification for their going among them 
And for this most important purpose that you woud Sir get 
as soon as possible a professor of Indian in your School and 
that the Indn Language may be taught as equally if not 
even more necessary than Latin Greek or Hebrew as I am 
indeed certain it is in this Case by my own certain experi- 
ence There Language may be reduced to the rules of 
Grammar & taught as any other Language and be learned 
as soon or sooner than any other especially by those who 
have any taste or geneous for the oriental Languages as I 
could easily show by what I learned of it Was it the will of 
God I shoud spend as much Time among them again as I 
did the last winter I think I woud be master of their Lan- 
guage & be able to reduce it to the Rules of Grammar which 
I think woud be a service of unspeakable advantage wdio- 
ever does it to efifect And if your son or any other propose 
to go into the service I hpe they will in the mean time give 
themselves to the study of the Indian Tongue You see sir 
the affair is so much on my Mind that I know not how to 
dismiss it or give over urging it upon your mind, Sir, till 
you do something to effect about it the which when I hear 
of my Mind will be easy in that respect but I must not 
enlarge May the Father of Lights direct you sir in all 
things & make his will in these & all respects plain & perfect 
for the furtherance & upbuilding the Redeemer's kingdom 
among the benighted Heathen 

"I am Hond sir with all sincerity respect 
"yours in Christ Jesus our Lord 

"]. Johnson." 

"P. S. I believe upon the whole it may be best for 
your son Mr Ralph not to go for the Oneida untill you Sir 
& yr son have had a personal Interview with Mr K — d at 
your own House & those affairs subsisting be considered 
& amicably settled to mutual satisfaction which I hope 
through the Mercy & Grace of God may be -lone & well 
done so that the pathway of Duty may be open & plain that 
there may be nothing in that respect witliin or without to 
hurt or offend in all God's Holy Mountain It was my 
Labor there with K — d & prayer to God then & since that 
[it?] might be done," 



52 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

"Groton, May 29, 1769 
"R. H. Sir 

"I hear Mr Huntington is going for Oneida this week, 
upon whose arrival I suppose Mr K — d will return to New 
England — When He comes I expect to see Him at Groton 
and have a personal conversation with hin- — \nd if the 
case require, meet him at Lebanon at your own House to 
reconsider those remaining matters of grievance if such 
there shoud be. I heartily wish it may be done if yet to 
do to the mutual satisfaction of all concerned and especially 
& above all as it concerns the Interest of Religion in gen'l 
& the propagation of the Gospel among the Indians in Par- 
ticular. I shoud have wrote to Mr K— d further but per- 
haps I have wrote enough in the affair till I see Him or 
hear from Him I wish you sir, your Family, School, and all 
attempts to Propagate the Gospel among Hie Indn Heathen 
Success I should have seen you Sir before now but ev'ry 
Day & week fills my head, heart & hands fu'l & even exceeds 
my own private affairs, chh & socity hang upon me in such 
a sort, as is uncommon we have chh meeting this week a 
council at Chelsea next & so on 

"I am Sir your very obliged Friends & Ser't in Christ 

"J. J0HN.S0N/" 

"Groton June 15 1769 
"Rev. & Hon. 

"Sir The state of my family & my own verv Indiffer- 
ent state of health has been & is the Reason why I have not 
seen 3'ou Sir at Lebanon e'er now. My wife has been & is 
poorly & 2d Daughter who is under the Dr's care j\Iy 
negro man and chief stay in my outdoor businc'^s Dyed last 
week after 9 days illness so that I am left weak I have sent 
3 or 4 letters to let you know of these things I came as 
far as [Newent] with my daughter but couldnt come farther 
the Dr being at Preston &:c & I was obliged also to be at 
home two besides as Mr Huntington is gone to Oneida & 
Mr Kirtland will probably be down the latter end of this 
Month or beginning of next I propose to see you then 
if possible. 

"The Times look threatening at Rome & abroad Our 
helpe is in God onely Some great adventure seems to be 
near The Nation & Land seem ripening fast for destruc- 
tion if meer sovereign grace does not interpose It will 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 53 

likely be troublesome if not dangerous for the Missionaries 
among the Indians this summer The Six Nations to be 
sure the Oneidas expect war & we hear the foreign Indians 
are mustering for that purpose about & beyond Detroit The 
quadruple alliance carries an ominous aspect But our God 
can, yea we may be sure will, over-rule all for Zion's good 
& his own and that's enough to quiet our minds 
"I am yours &c 

"]. Johnson." 

"P. S. I have Sir heard nothing from you either by 
word or letter since I came thro' Lebanon I know not but 
my Letters have all miscarried I suppose Mr Kinni didn't 
go so far as Lebanon as I expected I hope Sir however 
you have heard the reasons of my not coming & so I rest 
till I see or hear from your Sir." 

In a letter of October 28, 1769, Hugh Wallace wrote to 
Wheelock that Sir William seems satisfied that Wheelock 
was not to blame for what had taken place at Fort Stanwix, 
but he could not forget that Wheelock's instructions to 
Jacob Johnson strongly implied a desire of getting some 
lands from the Indians for his school. 

Chase says Johnson had "secret instructions" to get 
land for the school, that Johnson let the secret be known, 
and this made trouble ; that Johnson's companion, Avery, 
sent a special messenger to notify Wheelock. But after the 
excitement had all subsided Wheelock wrote to Johnson as 
in the letters of Janury, 1769, not to worry, &c. Chase was 
in error, because Jacob Johnson distinctly asked for land 
for school purposes, (v Documentary History of New 
York, iv, 248.) 

Jacob Johnson's arrival at Fort Stanwix had been at 
an inopportune time. Any New England man Wheelock 
could have sent would have been equally liable to incur the 
displeasure of his Majesty's Superintendent of Indian 
affairs. 

Though Sir William Johnson was an Episcopalian he 
had always treated the Presbyterian missionaries from Con- 



54 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

necticut with consideration, but a change had gradually 
come over him in this regard. 

"The entry of Wheelock's missionaries into the country 
of the Six Nations had not been gratifying to the partisans 
of the English Church and they entered into fresh com- 
munication with Sir William Johnson with a view to coun- 
teract the Presbyterian influence in the Indian country by 
occupying the field themselves." (Chase 73.) An itinerant, 
minister from the English Church at Albany had visited 
Sir William Johnson and had christened several children 
who had previously been baptized by Presbyterian mission- 
aries. Sir William had not only countenanced this proceed- 
ing by permitting it to be done at his home, but he himself 
had acted as Godfather. Some hot Presbyterian words of 
protest were spoken, the protest necessarily implying a 
criticism on Sir William Johnson. Added to this Sir 
William's natural son had been dismissed from Wheelock's 
school for some irregularity. So Sir William gave assurance 
to newcoming missionaries of the English Church that they 
would be heartily welcomed. Wheelock was promptly 
warned by friends in England that his movement in the 
Indian country was to meet with competition, and so he 
wrote to Whitefield as follows : 

"Plans for future operations are at present stopped 
by the daily expectation of Episcopalians from your side to 
supply all vacancies there, and {inter nos) it is supposed 
that Sir William Johnson designs none but such shall settle 
among the Indians in that vicinity. It is 'Indian news' 
that he has told the Onondagas to keep to their old religion 
and customs, that God is well pleased with them, and if 
ministers from New England come among them, to treat 
them with civility, but not to receive them nor mind what 
they say ; that he is often telling the Indians he expects true 
ministers, who will baptize them with the sign of the cross ; 
that those they have from New England are but half min- 
isters, etc., and I understand by two of my boys, who came 
from Mr. Kirkland's to-day, that Mr. Kirkland suspects 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 55 

something of that nature has had some influence to cool the 
affections of some towards him and towards this school." 

Chase in his History of Dartmouth College thinks 
something of that nature has had some influence to cool the 
affections of some towards him and towards this school." 
these rumors exaggerated and says Sir William Johnson 
assured Wheelock of his continued friendship, persuaded 
as he was "that Wheelock's pursuits would be dictated by 
a disinterested zeal and a becoming prudence towards the 
plans of the Established Church." 

It should not be forgotten that an Episcopal movement 
would necessarily have the endorsement of the Crown, 
while a Congregational movement would not thus be 
favored. Sir William's first thought was ever for the 
Crown, and so we find in Documentary History of New 
York, iv, 282, the following: "Sir William Johnson thinks 
the Church of England worship of much more influence on 
the Indians than that of the Dissenters, whose gloomy 
severity disqualifies them from the task. The Indians 
should always be taught to place their confidence in his 
Majesty as their common father and protector, who is dis- 
posed to redress their grievances and to contribute a portion 
of his royal bounty to making them happy, and thus furnish- 
ing the best security for their fidelity to the Crown." 

The responsibility for the failure of Wheelock's appli- 
cation to the Fort Stanwix council for aid in his religious 
movement among the Indians, was placed on Jacob John- 
son, who was charged with dissuading the Indians from 
agreeing to the boundary. But there are several factors to 
be considered : 

1st. Sir William Johnson, though personally friendly 
to Wheelock and up to this time friendly to his work, was 
no longer in sympathy with the New England Presbyterian 
evangelistic movement in the Six Nation territory, which 
he considered as belonging to the Church of England. 

It is an interesting coincidence that when Episcopalian- 
ism was, a few years later, introduced into the Mohawk 



56 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

Valley and western New York, it was accomplished mainly 
by Wheelock's own grandson. This was Davenport Phelps, 
and he was actively assisted by Joseph Brant. 

So with Jacob Johnson's impetuous course at the treaty 
as an excuse, the New England missionary movement was 
practically killed. Love in "Samson Occum" says Jacob 
Johnson's lack of diplomacy alienated Sir William Johnson. 
But the fact is, Sir William Johnson was already alienated, 
as Wheelock more than suspected, for he wrote to George 
Whitefield a year earlier that he had heard Sir William 
designed to restrict the missionary movement to Episco- 
palians. 

2nd. The Indian school would not have been saved 
even if the Fort Stanwix council had granted what 
Wheelock wanted, for it had passed the limit of its useful- 
ness. Wheelock himself had become discouraged at the 
meagre results, and he was ready to drop it. His English 
patrons were also discouraged and were withholding their 
donations. Then, too, Wheelock's son Ralph had acted 
injudiciously and had alienated the baronet. He had been 
on a mission to the Western Indians as the representative 
of his father. He is described as "imprudent, domineering 
and irascible," quarreled with Kirkland and did much harm 
to his father's beloved cause. Kirkland and Wheelock 
became more or less estranged and three years later the 
latter gave up the Six Nation work, though he for a time 
continued his efforts among other tribes. 

Various localities sought to secure the location of his 
Indian school. No less than three locations with land were 
offered him in Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna purchase — 
on the Susquehanna, on the Delaware and on the Lacka- 
wack. This was in 1769, but as the controversy between 
Connecticut and Pennsylvania rendered the title uncertain, 
it was necessary to go elsewhere. Hanover, N. H., was 
finally agreed upon and there in 1770 Dartmouth College 
had its birth, with all the powers granted by royal charter. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 57 

3rd. Sir William Johnson declared that the Connecti- 
cut missionaries were more interested in the movement to 
colonize the Susquehanna at Wyoming than in the evange- 
lization of the Indians, which was not true. Jacob Johnson 
would not have interfered at the Fort Stanwix council if 
Connecticut had had a representative there. 

4th. The approach of the Revolution made it impos- 
sible longer to carry on the Indian school. 

5th. The school had gone through its chrysalis stage 
and was now about to develop into an institution of greater 
usefulness, namely, into Dartmouth College, and if Jacob 
Johnson unwittingly hastened that end he is entitled to 
praise rather than censure. 

Goes to Pennsylvania. 

Undismayed by the Fort Stanwix treaty, the Connecti- 
cut claimants determined to take possession of Wyoming. 
They took it for granted that the Fort Stanwix deed of 1768 
to the Penns was obtained by fraud and they determined to 
maintain the ownership conveyed to them by the earlier 
Albany deed. Remembering how the Indians had destroyed 
the first settlement of Wyoming in 1763 and fearful, unless 
subjected to restraint, there might be a repetition of such a 
tragedy, Rev. Jacob Johnson wrote to Sir William Johnson 
from his home in Groton, Connecticut, concerning the affairs 
of the Connecticut claimants on the Susquehanna. This 
letter is among Sir William Johnson's manuscripts at 
Albany, and is as follows : 

"Groton, May 29, 1769. 

"Sir: 

"I have thot good to write a line to your Excellency, 
relating to the Susquehanna affair — Praying that cause may 
have a proper Tryal, not by lawless violence, but by the 
Law of Equity and Right, lest it throw the Governments 
which ought to be at peace among themselves as well as 
with the mother country, into a ferment and so the conse- 



5^ REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

quences be ill on all hands. I have no interest to serve in 
the case only as it concerns the common good and peace 
of my country to which I am a hearty friend but no bigot 
to any party, religious, civil or commercial. No, I heartily 
wish well to all mankind and have a feeling concern for 
Heathen Indians and others. I suppose this, if I may use 
the freedom, is agreeable to the sentiments of your excel- 
lency. Therefore Sir hoping you will not take up for the 
one against the other nor suffer but restrain the Indians 
from intermeddling in the affairs, I am Sir, 

"Your very humble oblige servt, 

"J. W. Johnson. 
"To His Excellency, 

"Sir William Johnson." 

What Sir William Johnson thought of the settlement 
of the Susquehanna region is told by him as early as 1762 
in a letter to Dr. Wheelock, who hoped that as the Connecti- 
cut people were about to occupy the new purchase, there 
might be an open door for the establishment of the Indian 
school. (Documentary History of New York, iv, 206.) Sir 
William's warning is as follows : 

"It will be highly improper to attempt any settlement 
in their country as they are disgusted at the great thirst 
which we all seem to show for their lands, and therefore I 
must give it as my opinion that any settlement on the Sus- 
quehanna River may prove fatal to those who attempt to 
establish themselves thereon, as the Indians have threatened 
to prevent such settlement, so that I hope the dangers to 
which they may be exposed, together with your governor's 
proclamation against the same, will induce those concerned 
to drop their undertaking." 

The Susquehanna Company originated in Windham 
County, Connecticut, as a colonization scheme. In 1753 a 
petition was laid before the General Assembly for official 
recognition. The History of Windham says : 

"That spirit of enterprise and migratory impulse was 
early manifested in Windham County, but it was not until 
1750 that the spirit of emigration, long smouldering, broke 
out into open flame. Connecticut's chartered right to a 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 59 

Strip of land, forty leagues wide, extending across the 
continent to the Pacific Ocean, had never been yielded. The 
marvelous richness and beauty of the Susquehanna Valley 
were already celebrated, and now it was proposed to plant 
a colony in this beautiful region and thus incorporate it 
into the jurisdiction of Connecticut. The originators of 
this notable scheme are unknown." 

A meeting for forming a company for the colonization 
of Quiwaumick (Wyoming) was held in Windham in 1753. 
Great enthusiasm was manifested and more than 250 per- 
sons signed the articles of agreement. 

However, the warning of Sir William Johnson was 
unheeded and it was resolved by the Susquehanna Company 
that five townships, each five miles square, should be granted 
to 200 settlers, 40 acres to each. That 40 settlers should 
start at once, the remainder later in the spring. 

It is worthy of note that three whole shares in each 
township were reserved for the support of religion and of 
schools. The first 40 men who came out were to have the 
first choice of one of the townships, and to become proprie- 
tors on condition of actual settlement and of defending 
themselves against rival claimants. 

When in February, 1769, the first 40 Connecticut set- 
tlers arrived in Wyoming Valley they found the Penn 
government had stolen a march on them and already had its 
representatives on the ground and in possession of the build- 
ings which had been erected by the ill-fated Connecticut 
adventurers who had attempted a settlement in 1762 and 
1763. It should be mentioned here that among those who 
perished at the hands of the Indians in 1763 was Rev. 
William Marsh, a Baptist minister, who had come with the 
first settlers as their religious teacher. And now when the 
second attempt at settlement was made the Susquehanna 
Company again sent a Congregational minister. Rev. George 
Beckwith, who remained about a year. 

At this juncture Jacob Johnson, who from his home in 
Connecticut had watched the Wyoming movement, deter- 



60 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

mined to identify himself therewith. He visited the valley 
in the summer of 1772 (Pearce wrongly says 1770), and 
was so favorably impressed that he sent the following letter, 
the original of which is in the possession of the Wyoming 
Historical and Geological Society. See also Harvey's 
"History of Wilkes-Barre." Vol. 11, p. 741-742. 

"Groton August 1 8th 1772. 

"To the Comte at Wilks Barre and People there and in 
the Towns on the Susquehanna. 

"Gentlemen and christian Friends. 

"All Love & Respect unto you. I lately received a Let- 
ter from Capt. Zn. Butler as also one from Col Elpt Dyer 
and Comte at Windham with an enclosed copy of a letter 
from Capt Butler to sd Comte Signifying the unanimous 
Request & Desire of the settlers on the Susquehanna that 
I would come among them in the character of a Preacher & 
Minister of christ. I have taken the very Important Request 
into the most serious consideration And find a complyance 
therewith is Hke to be attended with almost Infinite difiiculty 
both in my Family & People under my present care & 
charge. However this notwithstanding (upon the whole 
view of the case) I am of the mind 'tis the voice of God in 
his Holy wise & aldisposeing Providence that I should come 
to you. Shall therefore endeaver by the Will of God to get 
things in Readiness for that Purpose as fast as conveniently 
may be. 

"You will therefore I hope take some care to provide a 
House or some convenient place for Religious Worship that 
may best commode the whole Body of the People for the 
present, some where near to which you will please to pro- 
vide me a House or Place of Residence for my selfe & what 
small part of my Family I shall bring should any of them 
come with me. As to any other Prov^ision I shall leave the 
ordering of that to the Comte & People as they may think 
fit as or as occasion may call for. 

"In the mean Time I pray you not to ferget the Prin- 
ciple end & design of our Fathers coming into this wilder- 
ness — Xor be off your watch Sc guard & so be exposed to 
your spiritual or Temporal enemies. But above all by vour 
Holy Lives & conversations Interest yourselves in the Divine 
Favor and Protection that God Himselfe mav dwell with 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 6l 

you & bless you and prepare the way for the Blessing of 
the Gospel Ministry & ordinances among you. 

"So wishes so prays & most sincerely Desires your real 
Friend & humle sert for chirsts sake with all affection, 
[Signed] "Jacob Johnson." 
"To the People in the 
Several Towns on the 
East Branch of the 
Susquehanna. 

"P. S. Possibly the Rumer of Peace & counter orders 
to Goverr [Penn] may be a Devise to put you off your 
Guard to make you a more easy Prey, be the more watchful 
that you may not be betrayed. 'Sure bind sure find' Is a 
Proverb as True as it is old. 'Trust not an Enemy too soon.' 
Make no man a Friend but upon sufficient Tryal, 'Such as 
have broken their Promise twice Dont believe tho' they 
should swear Thrice.' Never trust a Fox out of a cage — or 
a serpent 'till His Head is broke. When thine Enemy 
speaketh fair believe Him not. For there are Seven Abomi- 
nations in his Heart. — Proverbs of Solomon. The Lord 
give understanding in all things. — St. Paid." 

This letter was followed three weeks later by another 
accepting finally the pastorate of the church in Wilkes- 
Barre. The original has been placed by the present writer 
in the Wyoming Historical and Geoloe^ical Society. See 
also Harvey's "History of Wilkes-Barre," Vol. ii, pp. 

742-743- 

"Groton, Septr 4th, 1772. 

"To the People, Setlers in the Towns, on the East 
Branch of the Susquehanna. 

"Brethren & Christian Friends 

"The Country where You are now Settleing is undoubt- 
edly within the claim of Connecticut Charter And of vast 
importance to the Colony and more particularly so to you 
that are Settleing there not onely on account of your Tem- 
poral Interest but more especially so as it Respects the 
Kingdom of Christ & the Interest of the Christian Religion 
This hath lain with great weight on my mind for a number 
of years past that I could have no Rest in my Spirit 'till I 
made you a visit And I hope my Labors were not in vain 
in the Lord — 



t)2 REV. JACOB JOHXaOX. 

''And whereas You have been pleased to Request &: 
Desire me to come again — as also the Comte at Windham 
have ShewTi their approbation thereof & full concurrence 
therein — And having opporrunit\- the DaA- past to Ccaifer 
w-ith Capt. Butler on these things As also to receive from 
him a Subscription for my Temporal Support the Present 
year I do now in Addition to my other Letters Send you 
this Further to let you know my Purpose & Determination 
is to come & See 3-ou To preach the Gospel of Christ tmto 
you Pro-y-ided my Way be made plain by the Advise of 
Counsel & Concurrence of church & people here which I 
Shall next attend to Our People have had it tmder con- 
sideration for Some Time past — I have conferd with Some 
& had the minds of others in the Ministry who all as far as 
I can learn well approve of & think it my Dut}- to Remove 
I have conferd with Several of our Principal People both of 
church & Society who much Desire my Continuation in the 
Ministr\- here But yet appear willing to Submit to my Re- 
move if it may be for the greater benefit & enlargement of 
Christs Kingdom elsewhere which I doubt not will be suffi- 
dentl}- plain & E^-ident before a Counsel If an^thnig 
Should fall out to the Contrary I shall let you know by the 
first opportunir\' In the mean time shall be makdng all 
convenient Readiness to be on my Journey to vou at least 
by the Middle of the next month or sooner if I can get the 
way open for my Remove 

"You will I hope provide Some Convenient House or 
Place for Public Worship that may best commode the Sev- 
eral Towns for the Presoit near unto which a House or 
Place for my Residence until things are further Settled I 
heartily thank you one & all for your Regards Shewn and 
kindnesses bestowed on me when with you As also for the 
Provisions you have generously made by Subscription 
Should I again come among You I heartily & sincerely 
pray a Blessing may descaid down from Heaven upon you 
that the God of all Grace & everlasting consolation may be 
with you. That He would multiply seed to the Sower & 
Bread to the eater that yon ma^- encrease & fill the Land 
be a Terror to all vour Enemies a comfort to all vour 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 63 

Friends Yea that You may be for a Name & Praise in all 

the Earth So wishes So prays Yours in 

"To the People "our Lord Jesus Christ 

at Wilks Barre & 

The other Towns on [Signed] "Jacob Johnson," 

The Susquehanna 

East Branch. 

At an early day Mr. Johnson had acquired a landed 

interest in the Susquehanna purchase, as appears from the 

following : 

"Deed of Humphrey Avery of Norwich in the County 
of New London, Colony of Conn. : 

to 
"Revd. Mr. Jacob Johnson of Groton in the County 
and Colony aforesaid — 

for the consideration of the Love and good will I 
have and bear toward him, my right to a half right 
or share in the land on Susquehanna River called the 
Susquehanna purchase. 

II March, 1771 

signed, Humphrey Avery 
Witnesses Samuel Avery Christopher Avery acknowl- 
edged New London Co Oct. 22, 1773. 

RoRT. Geer, Justice of Peace." 

The story of his removal to Pennsylvania is well told 
in an anniversary discourse delivered in 1853, by Rev. John 
Dorrance, D. D., on the occasion of the twentieth anniver- 
sary of his pastorate over the First Presbyterian Church, 
Wilkes-Barre, of which Jacob Johnson was the first pastor: 

"That part of Pennsylvania lying north of the 41st 
degree of latitude [passing through the southern portion 
of Luzerne County] was claimed by the province of 
Connecticut. As a natural consequence a portion of this 
territory, and especially that which is watered by the Sus- 
quehanna and its tributaries, was originally settled by emi- 
grants from New England, with the exception of one 
township, viz. : Hanover. This was occupied in great part 
by emigrants from Lancaster and Dauphin counties, Penn- 
sylvania. Those from New England were generally Con- 
gregationalists in education and feeling. Those from Lan- 



64 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

caster and Dauphin were of Presbyterian stock, originally 
from the north of Ireland. From these two sources was 
derived the original population of northern Pennsylvania ; 
better sources there are not. The ancestors of both the 
Puritan and the Scotch Presbyterian had been tried in the 
furnace of affliction, had suffered persecution in the old 
world, and endured hardships in the new. Their principles, 
confirmed by a long and painful experience of oppression, 
privation, exile and war, were inherited by their children, 
our fathers. Those were no common men who migrated 
to this terra incognita, through a howling wilderness, and 
battled with cold and hunger and poverty, with the hostile 
white man and the lurking Indian waylaying their path. 
Few in number, without resources and far from aid, they 
necessarily struggled for years against the power of the 
great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, against the combined 
forces of Briton, Tory and savage, and they and their wives 
and children and aged ones, when forced from the land, 
after witnessing the terrible Massacre, returned again and 
again, through trackless forests, invincible in their courage 
and fortitude, and established for us a happy home. Their 
labors, their valor, their constansy are above all praise. 
Their moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, love of order, human- 
ity, and benevolence are abundantly set forth in the laws 
framed for their government and executed by themselves. 
They were the sons and daughters of the honest yeomanry 
of Connecticut, — not the refuse of towns, — not gold hunters, 
or greedy speculators or reckless adventurers ; but the 
young, the enterprising part of a rural population, whose 
parents were ministers, deacons and members of evangelical 
churches. They came to fell the forest, cultivate the land 
and establish a society on the banks of the Susquehanna, 
where under a more genial sun and on a more fertile soil, 
they might enjoy all the privileges of their ancestors and 
transmit to their posterity a home possessing all the charac- 
teristic excellence of New England. 

"As early as 1772, when as yet few of the pioneers had 
ventured to expose their families to the hardships and dan- 
gers of frontier life, they sought to obtain the settlement 
of Rev. Jacob Johnson as their pastor. On September 11, 
1772, the proprietors of the town meeting voted to give him 
and his heirs forever, in case he settled with them, 'Fifty 
acres of any land now undivided' in this township, wherever 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 65 

he may choose, and subsequently the island below town, 
then of considerable size, and valuable for culture and as 
a fishery, was added. Mr. Anderson Dana and Mr. Asa 
Stevens were appointed to confer with Mr. Johnson and 
with committees of other towns agreeably to vote of the 
Company of Settlers of the five towns." 

According to the Westmoreland Records, August 23, 
1773, after he had preached nearly a year, a formal call to 
Mr. Johnson was made and the salary was fixed at £60 ster- 
ling, I. e. $300, with a promise of raising it as they were able, 
to iioo ($333 Connecticut currency). This, with a house 
and land, was a most liberal provision. This, while it ex- 
hibits the solicitude of our ancestors for Gospel privileges, 
also brings to view another trait of character, freedom from 
intolerance. The salary was ordered to be assessed on the 
tax list. This was the invariable practice in Connecticut. 
They knew no other ; but when a few who were not Con- 
gregationalists, but Baptists, remonstrated against this 
measure, the Congregationalists at once rescinded their 
resolution and raised the sum promised by voluntary sub- 
scription. This at the time was unprecedented. It was 
greatly in advance of the mother State, in which the stand- 
ing order was continued to a much later period. Having 
the power of law they voluntarily waived their advantage 
and took the additional expense and trouble upon them- 
selves. This was Christian charity. Rev. Jacob Johnson 
was a man of very considerable learning, * * * and 
eminent for sterling piety. 

"At the capitulation of Forty Fort Mr. Johnson was 
one of the commissioners who obtained, upon the whole, 
favorable terms from the victorious foe. He preached the 
Gospel, performed the marriage rite, administered baptism, 
shared the sufferings of the people in their expulsion by 
the Pennamites and the savages, comforted the bereaved 
mourning widow and orphan in their desolation and exile 
and returned with the afflicted remnant to build again the 
walls of Zion. 

♦Marsh and Beckwith, Mr. Johnson's predecessors in the field, were 
sent out by the Susquehanna Company and were paid out of the com- 
pany treasury. Mr. Johnson's support was provided by all the citizens 
alike, by means of rates levied at town-meeting. Marsh and Beckwith 
were like chaplains, their ministrations were but temporary, not fixed 
by the inhabitants, but by the parent land company in Connecticut. 

In a deed dated 1795 Mr. Johnson states that he and his son, Jehoiada 
P. Johnson, lived at the foot of Union Street, the father on the lower 
corner and the son on the opposite corner. 



66 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

"A house of worship, denominated a house for public 
use, had been commenced and almost completed when the 
desolating fury of the savage swept away habitation and 
men. [See infra, p. 79.] After the return of the inhabi- 
tants, a mere handful of the original number, Mr. Johnson 
renewed his labors as his advanced age and increasing 
infirmities permitted, until in the year 1797 he passed from 
earthly troubles and entered into rest." 

The following extracts are from the early records : 

"At a meeting held at Wyoming, 2nd Oct. 1772, Capt. 
O. Gore, Capt. Z. Butler and Maj. Ez. Pierce were ap- 
pointed a committee to provide a habitation for Rev. Jacob 
Johnson this winter." 

"At a meeting Nov. 18, 1772, voted: 'Mr. Christopher 
Avery is appointed to collect in those species that the pro- 
prietors and settlers have signed for the support of the Rev. 
Jacob Johnson, the year ensuing." 

"The Rev. Jacob Johnson is entitled to a settling right 
in some one of the settling towns." 

The method of calling these meetings is shown by the 
following warning, the original of which is in the possession 
of the Wyoming Historical Society. The fort referred to 
was Fort Wyoming, which stood on the river bank, near 
Northampton street. On the back is a tally list, probably 
the vote for the moderator of the meeting, of which "Capt. 
Butler" received 21 and "Capt. Gore" received 8: 

"These are to Warn all the Propriators Belonging to ye 
Susquehanna Purchase to meet at ye Fort In wilkes-barre 
on Wednesday ye i8th day of this Instant november (1772) 
at twelve a Clock on sd Day — 

1st. to se what meathod is Best to come into for our 
Guarding & Scouting this winter Season. 

2ly. to se what shall Be Done with those Persons that 
Complaint is made against their not attending their Duty 
when called upon — 

3ly. to appoint a collector to Receive in those Species 
that was signed by the Propriators and Setlers for ye Suport 
of ye Revend Mr. Johnson, ye year Insuing — 

4ly. to notify those Persons that Holds Rights and 
Have ye care of sd Rights to acquaitn ye comtee forthwith 
who manned sd Rights. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 67 

5ly. to se what this Company will Do further in Cut- 
ting & Clearing a Rode to Delaware River &c : — 

61y. to act upon any other Business that Shall Be 
thought Proper to be Done Ralative to the settlement of sd 
Lands &c : — 

Zebulon Butleb 
EzEKiEL Pierce 
Stephen Fuller 

Commttee. 
N. B. as their is Some Business of Importance to 
be acted on at sd meeting it is Hopeful you will Give your 
attendance." 

His labors started out so well that "At a meeting, 
February i6, 1773, voted to continue the Rev. Jacob John- 
son in the work of the gospel ministry among us." 

Mr. Johnson was pastor at first, not only of Wilkes- 
Barre, but of the adjacent towns of Kingston and Plym- 
outh, under engagement from the people in town meeting 
assembled. 

"At a meeting, December 8, 1773, Kingston and 
Plymouth are willing to dismiss the Rev. Jacob Johnson 
from his former agreement in dividing his labor in preach- 
ing the gospel among us." 

"Each town at town meeting shall appoint a committee 
of two men to confer with the Rev. Mr. Jacob Johnson 
concerning his preaching the gospel among us, and how his 
time shall be divided among us." 

In laying out the town two lots, containing about 400 
acres of back lands, had been set off for the first settled 
minister and for schools. One of these 400-acre lots and 
50 acres previously mentioned, together with a town lot of 
40 acres, will show the liberal provision made for Gospel 
purposes. (Miner.) 

Rev. Noah Wadhams, who visited Plymouth about that 
time, wrote a letter, in which he sad he found Rev. Mr. 
Johnson in the valley, and he hoped the latter would remain, 
as the people were as sheep without a shepherd. Mr. 
Wadhams subsequently accepted a call to the Plymouth 



68 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

congregation and served until his death in 1806. (See 
Harvey's History of Lodge 61.) 

In 1791 Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, M. A. (Harvard 1789) 
was pastor of the Wilkes-Barre church for six months. 

Following are extracts from the History of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre by Sheldon Reynolds, 
pp. 47-48 : 

"We find in the ancient records of the town that the 
town meeting, composed in its membership of the proprie- 
tors and settlers of the district, deliberated upon and decided 
all business affecting the welfare of the people, whether of 
secular affairs or that which touched their religious con- 
cerns. The minutes of these meetings often contain the 
action taken to provide for the defense of the settlement 
against the imminent attack of the enemy, and in the next 
paragraph record the amount to be paid the "settled min- 
ister," and the manner in which his salary is to be raised : 

"Nov. 18, 1772. Voted that those who belong to 
Hanover shall mount guard in ye block-house where Capt. 
Stewart now lives, and those that live in Kingston shall 
come over and do their duty in ye fort at Wilkes-Barre 
i.intil they shall fortify and guard by themselves in Kingston. 
''foted that Mr. Christopher Avery is appointed to collect 
m those species that ye proprietors and settlers have signed 
to ye support of ye Rev. Mr. Jacob Johnson ye year ensuing. 

"May, 1773. Voted that there be a constant guard kept 
at the fort in Wilkes-Barre of 12 men and that they keep 
it day and night, and that they be relieved every 24 hours ; 
Voted that the ferryman be obliged to carry the guard 
across on free cost ; and the people across on Sundays to 
meeting on free cost." 

The appended deed is an interesting document, inas- 
much as it is a conveyance made by the people in town 
meeting assembled. It settles definitely the claim that while 
other preachers of the Gospel had come and gone, Rev. 
Jacob Johnson was the first settled pastor of the Town of 
Wilkes-Barre. The lot conveyed to him was along the 
upper side of North street, and reached from Main street to 
the river. The Memorial Church is on the lot. In the deed 
books it was sooken of for many years as "the Fifty Acre 
lot." 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 69 

"WHEREAS the Susque- \ Timothy Pickering 
hanna Company among other / John P. Schott & 
regulations for the Settlement ) Zebulon Butler 

of the Town of Wilkes-Barre i to 

(now in the County of Luzerne) / Jacob Johnson 

and certain other Towns adjacent, resolved that three rights 
or shares in each town should be reserved and appropriated 
for the public use of a Gospel Ministry and Schools in each 
of said towns one of which rights or Shares was Intended 
for the first settled Minister in fee simple. 

"AND WHEREAS the Reverend Jacob Johnson of 
Wilkesbarre aforesaid claimed one right or Share of the 
Tract of Land in Sd Town reserved and appropriated to the 
publick uses aforesaid, by virtue of his Settlement as the 
first Gospel Minister therein, 

"AND WHEREAS the proprietors of said Town of 
Wilkesbarre (originally called the district of Wilkesbarre 
in the Town of Westmoreland) at a meeting regularly 
warned according to the usages of the said Town or district 
and held on th seventeenth day of April A. D. 1788 
appointed a committee, to wit, Timothy Pickering, John 
Paul Schott & Zebulon Butler, to search the records and 
see what Title the reverend Jacob Johnson had to a right 
of Land in Wilkesbarre and also to State the evidence he 
should produce of such right and report the same at a future 
meeting. 

"AND WHEREAS at a meeting of the said proprietors 
regularly warned and held as aforesaid on the eighteenth 
day of April A. D. 1789, two of the said Committee, to wit, 
John Paul Schott and Zebulon Butler (the said Timothy 
Pickering being at that time absent) made report to the 
said proprietors that having made the Examination and 
Stated the evidence of the Reverend Jacob Johnson's Title 
to one of the publick Lots in the said Town, they found he 
had an undoubted right of one of them by virtue of his call 
and Settlement there, whereupon the said report being ap- 
proved by the Said proprietors at their meeting last men- 
tioned, they passed a vote in these words, viz: That Colo. 
Timothy Pickering, Colo Zebulon Butler & Capt. John Paul 
Schott committee be empowered and Directed to divide the 
public Land in this Town into three Lots and put the rev- 
erend Jacob Johnson in possession of one of them, which is 
his property in fee simple. By virtue of his call and Settle- 



70 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

ment here as the first ordained minister, Now be it Known 
That the said Timothy Pickering, Zebulon Butler & John 
Paul Schott, in pursuance of the said vote have divided the 
Tract of Land in said Wilkesbarre reserved for public uses 
as aforesaid into three Lots by lines running Straight from 
front to rear and equally Dividing the front and Rear Lines 
of the said Tract of Land reserved as aforesaid and assigned 
the Southern Lot of the said three Lots to the reverend 
Jacob Johnson aforenamed, and do hereby put him in pos- 
session of the same, to hold to him and his heirs as an 
Estate in fee Simple. 

"IN WITNESS WHEREOF the Sd Timothy Picker- 
ing, Zebulon Butler & John Paul Schott do hereto set their 
hands and seals the eighteenth day of December in the year 
of our Lord one thousand Seven hundred and Ninety. 
Signed Sealed & delivered in \ Timothy Pickering (Seal) 
presence of us — 1 John P. Schott (Seal) 

by the Sd Timothy Pickerng /Zebulon Butler (Seal) 

Putnam Catlin 
Wm Ross 

And by the Sd Zebulon But- 
ler & John Paul Schott in 
presence of us — 

Rosewell Welles | Luzerne County ss 

Samuel Pease 

"Two of the Grantors to the foregoing instrument viz. 
John P. Schott & Zebulon Butler come personally before 
me and acknowledged the Same to be their free act and 
Deed Also Putnam Catlin one of the Subscribing Witnesses 
personally appeared and Solemnly Declared and said that 
he saw Timothy Pickering sign Seal and as his free act 
Deliver the foregoing Instrument and the said Putnam 
Catlin also declared that he saw William Ross subscribe the 
Same as Witness 

Given under my hand and Seal this tenth day of Deer 
A. D. 1793. 

(Seal) Arnold Colt Justice Peace 

Recorded Feby 18, 1797. (Book 4, page 420.) 

It also appears from Mr. Harvey's History, p. 746, that 
when the town voted to Mr. Johnson in 1773 the fifty-acre 
lot it reserved out of the same four acres at the south- 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 7^ 

easterly corner for a public burial ground, and that in lieu 
of this reservation the island known as Wilkes-Barre Island 
was voted to Mr. Johnson. 

"In addition to the "50-acre Lot" and "Wilkes-Barre 
Island" the proprietors of Wilkes-Barre subsequently 
granted to Mr. Johnson "Public Lot No. i" (mentioned 
on page 656). This lot lay in that part of Wilkes-Barre 
Township which is now Plains Township, immediately 
adjoining the present northeastern boundary of Wilkes- 
Barre Township, and extended from the main, or middle, 
road near Mill Creek to the southeastern boundary of the 
township. It was certified under the Act of April 4, 1799, 
as containing 396 acres. Within eight or ten years after 
settling here Mr. Johnson acquired other real estate in 
Wilkes-Barre to a considerable amount. March 8, 1773, 
the proprietor of Wilkes-Barre bestowed upon him Lot No. 
9 in the town-plot. May 12, 1777, Mr. Johnson became the 
owner of Lot No. 10 in the town-plot, and Lot No. 45 (con- 
taining 181 acres) in the 3d Division of Wilkes-Barre. 
July I, 1777, Mr. Johnson bought of James Stark, for £S, 
Lot No. 12 in the town-plot, and later in the same year, or 
early in 1778, he bought of John Abbott Lot No. 35 in the 
town-plot. 

From the Reynolds History of the First Presbyterian 
Church, pp. 52, 53, the following is quoted : 

"We have no record of the ministry of Mr. Johnson 
during his long and busy pastorate in Wyoming Valley. 
Whatever church records had been kept were doubtless 
destroyed, as were also nearly all other records of the time. 
We know, however, that services were regularly held when 
actual war was not being waged. Upon the return of the 
inhabitants after the flight from the valley they seem to 
have met for worship in the school houses, of which there 
were several, and at the humble homes of the settlers. Col. 
John Franklin, in his journal, says: "Sunday, 28 Feb., 
1789, I attended meeting at Mr. Yarrington's, Mr. Johnson 
preached;" and "Sunday, 28 March, 1789, attended meeting 
at Yarrington's to hear Mr. Johnson." 

"The field of labor to which Mr. Johnson had come was 
extended, as from his letter it seems he regarded all the 



72 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

towns of the "East Branch" as within his charge. This 
would include Lackawanna on the northeast and Plymouth 
and Hanover on the south and west. 

"During these years the Church was self-supporting, the 
organization was preserved, and its sustaining influences 
were felt in the community. Much more was probably 
accomplished, but we have now no means of knowing how 
much, or in what way, or by what methods its activity was 
exerted." 

After Mr. Johnson had been in Wilkes-Barre a year or 
two a movement was begun on the part of Connecticut to 
negotiate with Pennsylvania for the acquisition of the dis- 
puted territory of Wyoming. The Connecticut Assembly 
appointed commissioners to negotiate with Governor Penn 
a mode of bringing the controversy to an amicable conclu- 
sion. One of these commissioners whom Connecticut sent 
was Dr. William Samuel Johnson, to which distinguished 
statesman Rev. Jacob Johnson had the honor of being a 
kinsman. The commissioners eloquently argued the case, 
but the proposition of Connecticut was rejected, though 
Governor Penn went so far as to consent that the matter 
would be laid before the King for decision. The speedy 
outbreak of hostilities, however, between the colonies and 
the mother country interrupted this project. In the mean- 
time the Wyoming colonists were so encouraged by the fact 
that Connecticut had at last recognized the righteousness 
of their claim, by legalizing what they had done and prom- 
ising protection for the future, that they entered with 
increased enthusiasm upon the work of settlement. 

The Wyoming region was in 1774 erected into a town, 
called Westmoreland, and attached to the nearest Connecti- 
cut county, that of Litchfield, which was not much more 
than 100 miles away. Westmoreland had a population of 
about 2,000. The governor of Connecticut issued a procla- 
mation forbidding all settlements in Westmoreland, except 
under the authority of Connecticut, while the governor of 
Pennsylvania warned all intending settlers that the claims 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 73 

of Connecticut were only pretensions and that no authority 
other than that of the Penns must be recognized. The 
Wyoming people, now that Connecticut had assumed juris- 
diction, introduced the laws and usages of the civil govern- 
ment of the mother colony and peace and happiness reigned 
supreme for a time. 

This tranquillity was brought to an end by the outbreak 
of the Revolution. The growing troubles^ between Great 
Britain and the colonies had themselves served to strengthen 
the settlement at Wyoming, first by preventing any unfavor- 
able decision in the Connecticut claim then under consider- 
ation by the Crown, and second, by so occupying the time 
and thoughts of the Pennsylvania Proprietary government 
as to prevent interference with the Susquehanna settlers. 
Two resolutions of the people in town meeting assembled 
soon after the shock of Lexington and Bunker Hill deserve 
special mention. One was "to make any accommodation 
with the Pennsylvania party that shall conduce to the best 
good of the whole, and come in common cause of liberty 
in the defense of America," and the other was "to act in 
conjunction with our neighboring towns within this and 
the other colonies, in opposing the late measures to enslave 
America and that we will unanimously join our brethren 
in America in the common cause of defending our liberty." 

It is not going too far, perhaps, to venture the opinion 
that this resolution was written by Rev. Jacob Johnson, for 
it sounds strangely like the patriotic words which he spoke 
at the Fort Stanwix treaty seven years before. Certain 
it is, that Mr. Johnson's voice rang out everywhere for 
liberty and under his inspiring counsels Wyoming became 
one of the most active patriotic regions in all the colonies. 
So offensive did the young settlement become by reason of 
its aggressive patriotism that three years later (1778) it 
was made the object of an expedition of British, Tories 
and Indians and utterly destroyed. 



74 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

Was Brant at Wyoming? The earlier historians 
thought he was, but we know now that he had left the main 
body of Butler's invading army and gone off with a war 
party to devastate the Cherry Valley region. At Wyoming 
the Indians were led by Old King, a Seneca warrior, whose 
name has caused confusion by being spelled Kayingwaurto, 
Gucingerachton and twenty-five other ways. Some his- 
torians thought that the two names mentioned stood for 
two different Indians, of whom Brant was one. But this 
long disputed point has now been conclusively settled by 
several manuscripts whose existence was not known to the 
early historians. One of these, now in possession of the 
Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, gives the terms 
of capitulation in one of the Wyoming forts, bearing the 
signatures of the British commander, Col. John Butler, and 
the leader of the Indians, Kayingwaurto. The whole matter 
has been covered by Rev. Horace E. Hayden in his pam- 
phlet, "The Massacre of Wyoming," 1895, in which it is 
proven by documentary evidence that Brant was not at 
Wyoming. Harvey's History of Wilkes-Barre, Vol. II, pp. 
968-974, also conclusively proves this fact. Ten years 
before Brant was supposed to be a meek and lowly Chris- 
tian, interpreting Jacob Johnson's preaching to the Indians 
at Canajoharie, and now in 1778 he was on the warpath 
against the "rebel" patriots on the frontiers. 

Steuben Jenkins, in his historical address July 3, 1878, 
estimated the number of slain at 300 and of those who 
perished during the flight across the mountains to Connecti- 
cut at 200. The British commander officially reported 227 
scalps taken at Wyoming and many fugitives were shot in 
the river and their scalps were not obtained. Historians 
dJffer in their estimates of the loss of life. 

After the defeat of July 3, 1778, Mr. Johnson remained 
with such of the settlers as had not fled from the valley, 
and it is said that he drew up the articles of capitulation 
between the contending- forces. Miner states in his "Hazle- 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 75 

ton Travelers" that Judge Scott said he had seen the docu- 
ment and that it was in the handwriting of Mr, Johnson." 
Col. Jenkins's diary records that Col. Denison and Mr. 
Johnson capitulated for the inhabitants. 

This very interesting series of articles by Charles 
Miner, "The Hazleton Travelers," appeared in the Wyo- 
ming Herald of Wilkes-Barre in 1838, and many of them, 
but not all, are attached to Mr. Miner's History of Wyoming 
as an Appendix. As the article devoted to Jacob Johnson 
is one of those omitted, by reason, as the author says, that 
the principal events are interwoven in the history proper, 
it is given in part in this paper (page 91). 

The original document of capitulation is probably not 
now in existence. There is a copy in the British State 
Paper Oiifice in London, but the names were not accurately 
transcribed. Col. Denison's name is given as Denniston 
and Dr. Lemuel Gustin, one of the witnesses, is given as 
Samuel. The table on which the document was written is 
still preserved by Philip H. Myers of Wilkes-Barre. An 
illustration of the table is given in Lossing's Field Book of 
the Revolution. (Vol. I, p. 359.) 

The terms of the capitulation were not respected by 
the Indians and homes and farms were desolated by the 
torch. Not even the village of Wilkes-Barre was spared. 
Historians have stated that among the buildings burned was 
the little log church in which Mr. Johnson had been wont 
to preach the gospel, but Oscar J. Harvey, Esq., of Wilkes- 
Barre has in his possession an original letter written by 
Gen. John Sullivan in 1779, making it evident that the 
church was not entirely destroyed, as Gen. Sullivan directs 
Col. Zebulon Butler to use it for hospital purposes. The 
effect of the battle had been to leave the settlement naked 
to its savage enemies, and in consequence most of the set- 
tlers sought safety for a time in Connecticut. Those who 
had the hardihood to remain were exposed to constant 
danger from lurking Indian foes. It was only a few months 



y^ REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

after the Massacre that Httle Frances Slocum, whose pathetic 
story has been told in every language, was stolen from her 
heme in Wilkes-Barre and forever lost to her agonized 
parents, though found by her brothers after she had become 
an old and wrinkled woman, who knew no other life than 
that of an Indian squaw. 

During the Revolutionary War the Wyoming settlers 
submitted to the Connecticut Assembly, pursuant to resolve, 
a bill of losses sustained by them from July 3, 1778, to 
May, 1780, and Jacob Johnson's share was £459. This 
amount was exceeded only by the loss of Matthias Hollen- 
back, £671; James Stark, £547; Josiah Stansberry, £603; 
Elijah Phelps, £550; John Jenkins, £598. The total of 
these Revolutionary losses was £38,308, and Congress 
never paid them. 

Soon after the battle Mr. Johnson took his family back 
to Connecticut, and it was not until June, 1781, that he felt 
it safe to return with them. 

"Glowing with ardor," says Miner, "for religion, lib- 
erty and the Connecticut claim, the return was welcomed 
by his flock, indeed by the whole settlement, with cordial 
congratulations. He went from place to place, awakening 
sinners to repentance, arousing the people to new efforts 
and sacrifices against the tyranny of England and exhorting 
them to adhere to and support their righteous claims to 
their lands. But the cup of joy, in coming to his devoted 
people, was almost immediately dashed from his lips by the 
death of his daughter Lydia, consort of Col. Zebulon Butler. 

"The year, like the preceding, was extremely sickly, 
typhus fever being added to the remittent and intermittent 
which had previously prevailed." 

The Wallingford, Conn., records show that Jacob 
Johnson made a journey from Wilkes-Barre to Wallingford 
just a few months prior to the massacre of 1778. The pur- 
pose of the journey on horseback across the wilderness was 
to be present at the settlement of the estate of his brother 
Caleb, who had died at Wallingford the year previous. 
The record shows that on March 31, 1778, "Jacob Johnson, 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. "J"] 

clerk [clergyman], of Westmoreland, State of Conn.," made 
deed to Miles Johnson for the former's share in Caleb's 
estate, the consideration being £375, 15s and 7 d. Acknowl- 
edgment was made before another brother, Dan Johnson, 
justice of the peace. 

In Deed Book 23, p. 159, Enos and Sherborne Johnson 
in 1782 convey to Elihu Hall, Jr., land in Wallingford, west 
of river in South field, so called, containing 25^ acres, being 
the same and whole that Enos bought of the Rev. Jacob 
Johnson, as by a deed recorded Liber 12, folio 86, 1782. 
The latter reference shows that October 25, 1752, in ye 
county of New London and colony of Connecticut conveyed 
this land to Enos Johnson for £882. The tract comprised 
25J/2 acres "in ye great field on ye East and South by Capt. 
Elihu Hall's land on ye West with ye old field fence, on 
ye North by ye highway, being all ye land in great field 
as it anciently lay, belonging to Sergeant Jacob Johnson, 
deceased." 

Jacob Johnson of Groton, March 10, 1752, for ;£37i, 
bills of credit old tenor, had conveyed to Isaac Johnson of 
Wallingford, 8>4 acres. This tract and the tract sold to 
Enos probably represented all or nearly all the inheritance 
from his father, Sergeant Jacob. 

By the great kindness of O. J. Harvey, Esq., the fol- 
lowing from pages 746 and 747 of Volume II of his 
exhaustive History of Wilkes-Barre are given here : 

It has already been stated that not until June, 1781, did 
Jacob Johnson and his family return to Wilkes-Barre. 

"Having no house of their own which they could occupy 
they took up their residence at the corner of River and 
Northampton streets, in a part of the house of Colonel But- 
ler, then occupied by the latter's wife and children — he 
himself being absent on duty with his regiment at Peekskill, 
New York. Within three weeks after the arrival of the 
Johnsons at Wilkes-Barre Mrs. Lydia (Johnson) Butler 
died. Mr. Johnson soon began the erection of a log house 
on his town-lot No. 9, at the southeast corner of the present 



y8 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

Union and River streets, and upon its completion in the 
spring of 1782 he and his family removed into it from the 
Butler house. (See frontispiece.) In 1791 Jacob Johnson, 
his wife and two of their children were still residing there, 
while Jacob Williamson Johnson (the eldest living child of 
the Rev. Jacob) was living with his newly- wedded wife in 
a small house across the street on town-lot No. 10. May i, 
1792, the Rev. Jacob Johnson conveyed to his son Jacob 
Williamson, "in consideration of love and good will," Lot 
No. 35 in the town-plot, and other lands. Jacob Williamson 
thereupon removed to the house which stood on "No. 35" — 
a log house, standing at the southeast corner of the present 
Main and Union streets, where, many years later, the three- 
story brick building owned by the late Charles Roth was 
erected. About 183 the Rev. Jacob Johnson erected on Lot 
No. 10 — at the northeast corner of River and Union streets 
— a very substantial frame house, in which he and his wife 
lived until their respective deaths. Then the house was 
occupied by Jehoiada P. Johnson ; then for awhile 'by 
Charles Miner ; next, for a number of years, by Arnold 
Colt, and lastly, for upwards of thirty years (having, in 
the meantime, been renovated and slightly remodeled), by 
Dr. Charles F. Ingham. In the summer of 1887 Dr. Ingham 
demolished the old building, and erected on its site the 
three-story, double building of brick now standing there. 

"In July, 1778, after the battle of Wyoming, when the 
houses of Wilkes-Barre were almost entirely destroyed by 
the savages, Mr. Johnson's house — which stood on Lot No. 
9 — was burned. Other property belonging to Mr. Johnson 
was destroyed at that time, and in the list of losses incurred 
at Wyoming — prepared and presented in October, 1781; 
to the Connecticut Assembly, by its orders (see Chapter 
XIX) — the losses of Mr. Johnson were reported at £459, 
one of the largest amounts in the list. Mr. Johnson and his 
family fled from Wyoming, in common with the majority 
of the inhabitants of the valley, within a day or two after 
the surrender of Forty Fort, and made their way to Mr. 
Johnson's native town of Wallingford, where they took up 
their abode. There, under the date of September 2y, 1778, 
Mr. Johnson wrote to his son-in-law. Col. Zebulon Butler, 
addressing his letter in "care of Mrs. Butler, at the Public 
House of Mr. Wadkins. thirteen miles west of the North 
River — New Windsor." Mr. Johnson wrote : "If vou 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 79 

don't think it advisable for me to come on the Susquehanna 
this winter I shall engage in other business. How is it with 
you? Anything saved on the ground, as to the fruits and 
effects there, or what was hidden F Also, how is it with the 
dead bodies, or bones of the dead? * * Mrs. Johnson 
wants to know whether her clothes were found by the enemy 
— if not, that you v/ould take care of them." 

"Under the date of November lo, 1778, Mr. Johnson 
wrote from Wallingford to Colonel Butler at Wilkes-Barre 
as follows : "I was in great hopes of seeing Colonel Deni- 
son, to hear more particularly by him, and write and send 
to you, but failed. Tho I went and sent to Hartford I could 
not see him, he being then gone to Windham. * * * 
We have heard since your letter [of September 25th] that 
you were again drove off, destroyed, and many of you killed 
by the enemy, tho this was afterwards contradicted. I have 
been not a little concerned about you and the people there, 
lest the enemy should get some advantage against you, there 
being now, as I am told, about 150 in all — soldiers and 
inhabitants — and in a little picket fort that could make no 
considerable defense against 700 or 800 or 1,000 Tories and 
Indians, and while so many of ye old enemies, the Penna- 
mites, are watching for an opportunity to do you a mischief, 
and would, no doubt, be glad and rejoice at it. Things 
being so with you I should by no means at present think it 
safe to come or send my negro or anything of value there 
where you be. If you had 500 or 700 men with a good 
strong fort, such as that at Fort Stanwix, and well laid in 
with all warlike stores, provisions, &c., I should think quite 
otherwise ; and until that be done, as the day now is, it 
seems rather presumptive than prudence, to venture your 
lives and fortunes (the little left) in such a weak and 
defenceless state. * * * Continental Dollars, one thing 
with another, are at a discount of ten and twelve for one, 
and rarely answer to buy anything at all." 

"February 16, 1779, Mr. Johnson wrote from Walling- 
ford to Colonel Butler at Wilkes-Barre as follows : "I am 
not determined as yet whether it will be best for me to come 
or send any part of my family. * * * j have as yet 
school, and occasionally preach here and there as a door 
opens. I think it would be but reasonable you should have 
a Chaplain or minister with you in Continental pay. If I 
could come in that character I don't know but I would come 



8o REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

and bring my negro and one of my boys with me. You and 
the people there may advise upon it and let me know your 
mind, either by letter or when you come this way. If this 
can't be effected (tho I don't doubt but that it might by 
application to Congress, or even to Connecticut State) — I 
say, if this can't be done, I shall engage in some other way 
and lay by the thoughts of coming to Susquehannah, at 
least at present, tho the state of things here are uncommon. 
* * * I am concerned for my daughter's health — I 
mean Miss Butler [Mrs. Zebulon Butler]. If I knew what 
she might want, and it was in my power to send it, I would 
not fail to do it. * * * Let her not be concerned for us 
or her only son, Zebulon, Jr., for he is as our own." Mrs. 
Butler had, some time before, rejoined her husband at 
Wilkes-Barre, leaving her only child, Zebulon Johnson But- 
ler, then nearly three years old, with his grandparents at 
Wallingford, with whom Colonel Butler's daughter Hannah 
was also then residing. 

"September 30, 1779, Mr. Johnson wrote fromWalHng- 
ford to Colonel Butler at Wilkes-Barre, in part as follows: 
"Yours by Mr. Sills (i8th inst.) I received * * * As 
to my coming up with my family this Fall: Tho I had (be- 
fore the arrival of Mr. Sills and your letters by him) con- 
cluded otherwise, this notwithstanding I have since deter- 
mined, by the Leave of Heaven, to come, provided it ap- 
pears to be the mind of the People that I should come; 
as also that I come in the character of a Continental chap- 
lain, or be stationed at Wilksbarre or elsewhere in that 
Public Character, and that one of the Continental waggons 
be sent here to remove me with my family and necessary 
effects to Wilksbarre. Otherwise I shall not be inclined to 
come ; altho' for your sake, Miss Butler's sake, and some 
others of my Particular Friends I should be very glad to 
come, and bring your dear son and my grandson equally 
dear to me, to whom your bowells often times yearn to- 
wards, and who is so desirous once again to see his Daddy 
and mammy, and almost overjoy'd to hear there was a pros- 
pect of going. * * * I have in this Letter said I would 
come to Wilksbarre provided it apears to be the mind of 
the People I should come, for I would come by their desire 
and good will, & I know not I have any reason to distrust 
their Good will. I say further I will come provided I come 
in the Publick office & character of a Continental chaplain. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 



8i 



For / Jiiean to spend the Remainder of my Days in Preach- 
ing the Glorious Gospel of the great saviour of the zvorld, 
and so many Doors stand open this way that I should not 
choose to come to Susquehannah except a Door opens there 
for PubHc usefulness." 

"About the same time that the Rev. Jacob Johnson wrote 
the foregoing letter his wife, Mrs. Mary Johnson, wrote to 
her daughter, Mrs. Zebulon Butler, as follows: "We had 
concluded to come to Wilksbarre when your father saw 
Captain Colt and Mr. Goold at Lyme. They told him they 
had heard eighteen men were a mowing of the Flats; the 
Indians rose upon them and killed seventeen of them. 
* * * That put a stop to our thoughts of coming till 
we heard further. I hope in six or seven weeks to be with 
you. * * * Zebulon [Johnson Butler] is often talking 
about his daddy and mammy. You can't think what a man 
he is. He goes of arrants, cuts wood, husks corn, feeds 
hogs — does a great deal of work, he says. He is a charm- 
ing child. I could not have been contented had he not been 
with me. * * * I hope Colonel will send for us as soon 
as we have wrote, for it would be beyond account to get 
horses here for such a journey. * * * Your father 
went to town for Calico. Could get none. He sent to 
Hartford and got a patron [pattern] one. If you like it, he 
can get more. It was 25 Dollars a yard. It was the cheap- 
est I have seen." 



The Land Contest. 

The close of the war, following the surrender of Corn- 
wallis at Yorktown in 1781, brought peace with England, 
but it brought what was no less serious than the Revolu- 
tionary War, a renewal of the strife between Connecticut 
and Pennsylvania for the possession of Wyoming. How- 
ever, neither side was desirous of renewing the contest and 
both joined in an agreement to abide by the decision of a 
commission to be appointed by Congress. The court, known 
as the Council of Trenton, was duly appointed and on 
December 30, 1781, after a sitting of 41 days at Trenton, 
New Jersey, decided in favor of Pennsylvania. 



82 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

Though the Decree of Trenton terminated the jurisdic- 
tion of Connecticut it did not bring peace, and on the 
contrary there was to be a re-opening of the civil strife, or 
the "Pennamite and Yankee War," which the Revolutionary 
conflict had suspended. The proprietary landholders 
resorted to various measure to oppress and expel the Con- 
necticut claimants, who while declaring their loyalty to the 
sovereignty of Pennsylvania, yet maintained the private 
ownership of their lands. The landholders ofifered to give 
the Connecticut claimants temporary use of the lands, but 
at the expiration of the term they must vacate and disclaim 
all claims to title under Connecticut. The Connecticut 
settlers might remain on one-half of their lands, giving up 
immediate possession of the other half ; the widows of those 
who had fallen by the savages were to be indulged in half 
their possessions a year longer and Rev. Jacob Johnson was 
to be shown the special clemency of occupying his lands 
two years longer. 

As an evidence of the feeling of utter helplessness of 
the people of Wyoming at the time of the transfer of our 
Valley from the jurisdiction of Connecticut to that of Penn- 
sylvania, it will be of interest to give the following im- 
pressive letter from Rev. Jacob Johnson, who was acting 
in behalf of the settlers, to a committee of Pennsylvania 
landholders who claimed title to the Wyoming land under 
Pennsylvania patents. The letter is published in the Penn- 
sylvania Archives. It breathes forth the spirit of Christian 
forbearance and resignation in a manner creditable to the 
head and heart of that good old man, who had fought the 
Christian's fight amid hardships and suffering incident to 
the pioneer's life, and had received as an evidence of the 
appreciation in which he was held by his friends and neigh- 
bors some wild land, then of little value, but it was all that 
he possessed to stand between him and utter destitution, 
as the shadows of night and his failing energies admonished 
him that his time of labor was past. What a truly eloquent 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 83 

appeal was this in behalf of the widows of those hardy pio- 
neers, his neighbors, bereaved by the merciless savages in 
defending the little homes which they suffering and blood 
had won in this far-off wilderness !* 

"To the Committee of the Pennsylvania Land owners, &ci 
"Gentlemen : 

"I thank yon for your distinguished Favor shewed to 
me the widows, &c., in a proposal of Indulgence, Permitting 
us to reside in our present Possessions and Improvements 
for the present & succeeding Year. I cannot Consistently 
accept the offer, having Chosen a Committee for that pur- 
pose, who are not disposed to accept of or Comply with 
your proposals. However, I will for myself (as an Indi- 
vidual) make you a proposal agreeable to that Royal Presi- 
dent, 2d Samuel, 9th, i6th & 19th Chapters ; if that don't 
suit you and no Compromise can be made, or Tryal be had, 
according to the law of the States, I will say as Mephe- 
boseth, Jonathan's son (who was lame on both his feet) 
said to King David, yea let him take all. So I say to you 
Gentlemen if there be no resource, either by our Petition 
to the Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania or otherwise, 
Let the Landholders take all. I have only this to add for 
my Consolation and you Gentlemen's serious Consideration, 
Viz. : that however the Cause may be determined for or 
against me (in this present uncertain State of things,) there 
is an Inheritance in the Heavens, sure & Certain, that fadeth 
not away, reserved for me, and all that love the Saviour 
Jesus Christ's appearing. 

"I am Gentlemen, with all due Respect, & Good Will 
"your Most Obt Humble Servt, 

"Jacob Johnson. 

"Wioming, Apl 24th, 1783." 

"N. B. it is my Serious Opinon if we proceed to a 
Compromise according to the Will of heaven that the lands 
(as to the Right of soil) should be equally divided between 
the two Parties Claiming, and I am fully Satisfied this 
Opinion of mine may be proved even to a demonstration 
out of the Sacred Oracles. I wish you Gentlemen would 
turn your thoughts and enquiries to those 3 Chapters above 
referred to and see if my Opinion is not well Grounded & 

•The introduction to this letter is from the pen of Wesley Johnson. 



84 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

if SO, I doubt not but we Can Compromise in love and 
Peace — and save the Cost and Trouble of a Tryal at Law." 

Nearly four years later, there having been no abatement 
of the controversy between the Connecticut and the Penn- 
sylvania people, Mr. Johnson addressed the following letter 
to Timothy Pickering, Esq. The original is among the 
Pickering Manuscripts in the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. It was discovered there by O. J. Harvey, Esq., and 
will be printed in full in the third volume of his History of 
Wilkes-Barre. It is through his generous kindness that it 
is permitted to appear first in these pages. 

"Sir: 

"I am fully persuaded the Lands in controversy apper- 
tain both in Law Equity and Justice to the State of Con- 
necticut and Proprietors who hold under that State. Never- 
theless for the sake of ending the unhappy controversy in 
Peace and Love I am rather inclined to come to a Division 
of the Lands agreable to the Precedent or Example set us by 
King David very similar to the present case. The King 
gave all the Lands appertaining to the House of Saul to 
Mephebosheth — Afterwards the King gave away The same 
Lands and even the whole to Ziba, upon which a controversy 
arose betwixt Mephibosheth and Ziba who was heir in Law 
to the aforsaid Lands being a grant was equally made to 
both. The King ends the controversy by ordering a Division 
to each one as fellow commoners in Law to said Lands. 

"This medium of ending the Controversy I have pro- 
posed some time ago agreeable to the Divideing Lines 
drawn by Congress betwixt the East and west branches of 
Susquehanna Setting off the East branch to Connecticut 
Proprietors and the west to Pensylvania. 

"This medium of compromisement I would still propose 
and urge agreeable not only to the Royal Example above 
But also a late settlement of Massechusetts and New York. 

"If it should be objected that the Decree at Trenton 
was Definitive and gave the Right of Jurisdiction and pre- 
emption to the State of Pensylvania consequently the Pro- 
prietors of the State of Connecticut have no right to a 
Division 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 85 

"Answr that Decree at Trenton was either Inclusive of 
the Right of Connecticut in common with that of Pensyl- 
vania or Exclusive. 

"If inclusive then we have a Right of Division even 
by that Decree — or if supposed by the objector to be exclu- 
sive — we nevertheless have a Right in Law to plead the 
most favorable construction wherfore turn the Tables 
which way Soever the Object or pleases we have still a 
Right in Law to an equitable Division — And on this Basis 
we Rest the whole matter. 

"Do therefore Petition and plead only for Law Equity 
and Justice to be done us. If it should be farther objected 
that to make a Division of so considerable a tract of Country 
to so few and inconsiderable company of Proprietors would 
be too much. 

"Is it too much to pay for the Price of so much blood 
spilt and Treasure lost on this hostile and unhappy ground 
Who — where — is the man in all Pensylvania would give 
such a price. I am sure If it was to do again I would not 
purchase it at so dear a Rate — 

"But what a great thing is it ! Seperate the Lands of 
worth from those of wast and worthless what have the Pro- 
prietors now on the ground but a moderate farm to be sure 
if we take in their Posterity with them. 

"If it be objected that the State of Pensylvania can't 
give away Lands that are the Property of Governor Pen or 
the Land holder under Him. Answr we want no such Gift 
But only what we have a Right to in Law equity and Justic. 
We don't come to the Assembly to begg a Gift but to protect 
and defend us in the enjoyment of our own. 

"Should it be said we are now a County &c Have or 
may have benefit of Common Law — what need we more — 
Be it so — As the present state of things are — this will not 
prevent Hostilities vexatious Law suits Tumults & Confu- 
sions among us — But I submit the Cause to the Supreme 
Arbiter of the universe and wisdom of the Assembly of the 
State of Pensylvania — You will please Sir to enforce the 
Reason Law and equity of dividing these controverted 
Lands as above proposed. And you will in so doing be an 
Advocate in the suffering Cause of Right and oblige, &c., 

"Jacob Johnson/'' 

"Feb. 7, 1787." 



86 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

It is needless to say that neither this letter nor any 
other of the appeals of the Connecticut claimants elicited 
any pity from the landholders claiming under Pennsylvania. 
Instead of pity, the oppression became more and more 
severe and the settlers at Wyoming seriously contemplated 
an exodus to the northward, with the hope of finding a 
retreat in the more hospitable government of New York. 
Indeed a petition was sent by the Wyoming settlers asking 
the Assembly of New York to grant them a tract of land 
on which settlement might be made. A copy of this peti- 
tion, which has never been published, is in the possession 
of the writer of this paper, and among the signatures is 
the name of Rev. Jacob Johnson. The petition was con- 
veyed to Albany by Obadiah Gore and a tract of land was 
granted at a merely nominal sum. In the meantime surveys 
and explorations had been made by Franklin, Jenkins and 
others, in the domain of New York. For some unexplained 
reason, probably because the Wyoming people were becom- 
ing more and more accustomed to the new regime, the 
exodus as a whole was never carried out, though the Gores, 
Spaldings and others left Wyoming Valley and settled some 
70 miles further up the river. 

The half dozen years following the Decree of Trenton 
were marked by a condition of civil war in Wyoming, lives 
being lost on both sides. Frequent arrests of Connecticut 
settlers were made and they were incontinently hurried off 
to the Northampton County jail at Easton, under guard 
and in irons, or their hands tied behind them. One of the 
Connecticut men who thus suffered indignities at the hands 
of the Pennamites and was arrested on a charge of treason 
was Jehoiada Pitt Johnson, son of Rev. Jacob Johnson. As 
Miner says : 

"The conquest seemed complete, the pacification of the 
valley accomplished and tenants of the Pennsylvania claim- 
ants took possession of the empty dwellings. The only 
difficulty that remained was how to get rid of the wives and 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 87 

children of those in jail and of the widows and orphans 
whose husbands and fathers slept beneath the sod. Two 
years had elapsed since the transfer of jurisdiction by the 
Trenton Decree. Peace, which waved its cheering olive 
over every other part part of the Union, came not to the 
broken-hearted people of Wyoming. The veteran soldier 
returned, but found no resting place. Instead of a joyous 
welcome to his hearth and home, he found his cottage in 
ruins or in possession of a stranger and his wife and little 
ones shelterless in the open fields or in the caves of the 
mountains." 

Discouraged at the hopeless efforts to secure justice, 
the Connecticut settlers sought to found a new State, and 
in this they were aided by Ethan Allen of Vermont. Stew- 
art Pearce says : 

"The attempt to establish a new State out of northern 
Pennsylvania, if not nipped in the bud, would have led to 
deplorable consequenies. All the wild spirits of New Eng- 
land would have flocked to Allen's standard and the people 
of Pennsylvania would have put forth all the energies of 
the Commonwealth to crush the efforts to dismember the 
territory. A violent and bloody civil war would have 
followed and would possibly have involved the Union in 
its conflagration." 

One of the incidents of this controversy was the ab- 
ducting of Timothy Pickering by the Yankees at Wilkes- 
Barre and holding him a prisoner 20 days in the northern 
wilderness. The participants were arrested, tried and con- 
victed of riot. 

"The trials being closed and sentence having been 
pronounced, the action of the court was denounced by the 
great body of the population. In particular Rev. Mr. John- 
son took occasion to condemn the whole proceedings from 
the pulpit. By order of Judge McKean he was brought 
before the court and required to give bonds for his good 
behavior." (Pearce's Annals, p. 280.) 

Miner says: 'Tt is worthy of note that Rev. Jacob 
Johnson could not or would not suppress the ebullition of 
his Yankee and patriotic ire at the course of proceedings. 
He made the pulpit echo with his soul-stirring appeals. So 



88 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

open were the denunciations of the pious old man that he 
was arrested, called before Judge McKean and obliged to 
find security for his peaceable behavior." 

Pearce describes Jacob Johnson in the words of 
Hudibras, 

"He was of that stubborn crew, 

Presbyterian true blue, 

Who prove their doctrine orthodox 

By apostolic blows and knocks." 

"As the feebleness of advancing years crept over the 
frame of their beloved pastor, other ministers occasionally 
came to visit and assist him in his work. Some were Con- 
gregationalists from Connecticut, and some Presbyterians 
from the lower Susquehanna. Rev. Elkanah Holmes, 
Rev. Noah Wadhams and Deacon John Hurlbut were 
among those who thus assisted." 

"The most important spiritual assistance, however, was 
by Rev. Elias Von Bunschoten, of the Presbyterian Church 
at Minisink, who came here about 1790, and in July, 1791, 
organized a church in Hanover. 

He was followed by Rev. Mr. Andrew Gray of Ireland, 
from Poughkeepsie, who was settled in 1792, a preacher of 
uncommon eloquence. He married Miss Polly, daughter of 
Capt. Lazarus Stewart." 

During Mr. Johnson's closing years a movement was 
set on foot through his exertions to build a church to take 
the place of the old log court house in which services were 
held, but he did not live to see it completed. So difficult 
was it to raise funds that in common with the custom of 
that day it was deemed necessary to resort to the instru- 
mentality of a lottery. But Jacob Johnson had been in his 
grave 15 years when the new edifice — the Old Ship Zion — 
after many delays, and after having been struck by light- 
ning three times, was ready for occupancy, in 1812. 

In an autobiographic and unpublished diary of Colonel 
Timothy Pickering, covering about one month in the early 
part of 1787 and lately discovered by O. J. Harvey, Esq., 
and to be printed in the third volume of his History of 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 89 

Wilkes-Barre appears the following account of Jacob John- 
son, which Mr. Harvey with his wonted courtesy has per- 
mitted to be printed first in these pages : 

"Sunday, Jan. 14, 1787. There lives at Wilksborough 
[Wilkes-Barre] an old gentleman named Johnson, who was 
formerly a minister to the people here, who at this place had 
erected a church, which was burnt by Butler and his Indians 
in 1778. Mr. Johnson still preaches to the people in private 
houses here, and in all the neighboring settlements on both 
sides of the river. This day he preaches at Shawanee. Efe 
is said to be very constant in performing divine service on 
Sundays, but receives nothing for it from the people, except 
now and then a trifling present of a few bushels of grain. 
Neither are there any school-houses, tho here and there the 
people have employed a temporary school-master. * * " 

"Jan. 25. * * * Parson Johnson was at the meet- 
ing [of inhabitants] to-day. He told Col. Butler that he 
could answer all my questions, &c. I proposed to the Col. 
to go and see him this evening. We did so. He imme- 
diately began on the subject. 

"I found him possessed of all the prejudices of the 
warm abettors of the Susquehanna Company's claim, and in 
full belief of all the falsehoods and misrepresentations which 
have been industriously raised and propagated to support 
it, and of some absurdities peculiar to himself. He be- 
lieved the Charter of Conn, was better than that of Penna. ; 
that the Indian deed was a good one; that the original 
produced at Trenton was not the fair one, and was only 
kept by the Company but not intended to be used. That 
after receiving that of the Indians the Company got another, 
in a fuller assembly of Indians, and this was perfectly fair- 
That this had been sent to England. That it had been 
returned, and fell into the hands of the Pennsylvanians, who 
kept it and would not produce it at the Federal Court [at 
Trenton], and that they still had it. * * * I answered 
all these objections, but the old gentleman would believe 
no fact however plain or probable, if it contradicted his 
former belief. He crowned all with this remarkable declara- 
tion : 'You are of one opinion and I am of another. I am 
^xed, and shall never change, till the day that Christ comes 
to judgment !' " 



90 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

"Sunday, Jan. 28. This morning Mr. Bailey informs 
me that Parson Johnson has changed his mind, and thinks it 
will be best to hold the election ! ! !" 

How did the civil strife end? The Legislature of 
Pennsylvania finally, between the years of 1788 and 1800, 
enacted laws calculated to settle all dififrences fairly and 
justly, but the most important was the Compromising Law 
of 1799. By its provision all Connecticut claimants who 
were actual settlers on the land prior to the Decree of Tren- 
ton, were given title from Pennsylvania, on the payment 
of nominal sums, ranging from $2.00 per acre for the best 
land to 8 and 1-3 cents per acre for the least valuable land. 
Thus after 30 years of strife there was peace in Wyoming. 

In Charles Miner's sketch of Rev. Jacob Johnson in 
"Hazleton Travelers" he says : An interesting lady, far 
advanced in years, who was here when the call was given, 
and knew him well, still speaks with enthusiasm of their 
old Pastor. "If there ever was a Gospel minister on earth, 
I do believe Priest Johnson was one. He was so earnest — 
so sincere; and a very learned man too. The Indians at 
that early day used to gather round to hear him." 

"Was he eloquent as a preacher?" 

"The habits of the clergy at that time were, in the 
pulpit and out of the pulpit, very staid, their style severe, 
their manners grave and demure. Like the old Puritans, 
they deemed it wrong to indulge in passionate declamation, 
or to study the graces of oratory. Argumentative, solemn 
and impressive, he was, generally, rather than eloquent; 
that is in his regular discourses ; but in prayer his spirit, 
at times, would seem to break away from earth, warming 
and glowing with holy zeal, his wrapt spirit would ascend 
on the wings of hope and faith and carry you with him, as 
it were, to the very portals of Heaven. He was tall, slender, 
a little bent forward — very considerate in conversation — 
mild and sweet tempered. I was at the first wedding ever 
celebrated at Wilkes-Barre. It was that of Col. Denison. 
The bride was Miss Betsy Sill" 

"So you had a very sober time of it?" 

"Not so very sober either. They tempered a staid 
general conduct by occasional relaxation. We had a right 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. Ql 

merry wedding. Mr. Johnson smiled with the rest, though 
the fashion of the times hardly allowed a minister to smille, 
much more, to laugh. But when the young folks began to 
be noisy, he took his hat and said he 'believed it was time 
for him to be at home.' " 

Mr. Johnson, though he lived long a bachelor, had 
married before he left Connecticut, a lady of much per- 
sonal beauty and highly accomplished. Miss Mary Giddings 
of Preston, Connecticut. She was of one of the old aris- 
tocratic families of that State. I have heard the elderly 
ladies speak of her intelligence, her grace of manner, and 
with some slight envy of the beautiful gold locket which she 
displayed pendant to the chain of gold beads which she 
wore round her neck; and also of the more than common 
richly suit of curtains, gaily flowered by the needle on fine 
cambric, which decorated her bed. Their eldest daughter, 
Lydia, was married, soon after the commencement of the 
war, to Col. Zebulon Butler, who commanded the American 
forces in the Wyoming battle. As it was distinctly avowed 
by the enemy that they would make no terms with any 
Contitnental troops. Col. Butler with the 15 soldiers, the 
whole of that description left and retired through the wil- 
derness to Connecticut. He threw a bed on his horse instead 
of a saddle, and took Mrs. Butler behind him. It was all 
they saved 

The Iroquois Language. 

While in the Indian country Mr. Johnson made a study 
of their language and he had no doubt that with three 
months' more study he could speak the Oneida language 
complete, and that with six months' more practice he could 
speak all the languages of the Six Nations, as they were so 
similar. Their similarity is referred to by Sir William 
Johnson (Documentary History of New York, iv, 272), 
who says : "The difference of dialect among the Five Na- 
tions is little more than may be found in the provinces of 



92 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

the large States of Europe." In a letter to Wheelock Mr. 
Johnson recommended that he get a teacher of the Indian 
language in his school, as he considered it more important 
than Latin for the equipment of a missionary. "These lan- 
guages," he says, "may be reduced to the rules of grammar 
and be learned as soon as any other, especially by those who 
have any taste for the oriental languages. Was it the will of 
God that I should spend another half year with them I think 
I would be master of the language." Lossing states (Field 
Book i, 349) that at an Indian conference at Wyoming in 
1775, Rev. Jacob Johnson acted as interpreter. (Miner 183.) 

In 1776, when war rumors were afloat and both Ameri- 
cans and British were bidding for the support of the In- 
dians, several chiefs visited Wyoming, ostensibly for con- 
ference and presents, but as Miner thinks, to treacherously 
introduce the savages into the settlement without creating 
alarm, and then treacherously to destroy the whole. Such 
a visit was made by a Six Nation chief, whose speech was 
interpreted by Jacob Johnson. It professed to be friendly 
to the settlers, but carried suspicion on its face. 

Latin he wrote with correctness and ease. I have seen 
a petition to Congress drawn by him, the original draft of 
which is partly in Latin — a pardonable vanity in a scholar 
living so secluded. 

In quite advanced life he displayed what to the world 
might seem some of the eccentricities of genius, yet entirely 
consistent with the Christian character. For instance, he 
wore a girdle in imitation of camel hair, like John the Bap- 
tist : and his notions in respect to the second coming of our 
Saviour, to reign a thousand years, were somewhat peculiar. 
His faith was pure and lively, and he looked to that second 
advent as a scene the most glorious that imagination could 
conceive. Instead of regarding death with terror, such was 
the triumph of his faith, that he spoke of it as a desirable 
event — selected the spot for his grave; and there he would 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 93 

sometimes be seen sitting at his devotions with his beloved 
Bible on his knee. Here the venerable patriarch chose his 
final resting place till the glad call of his Saviour's coming 
should arouse him to glory. 

Jacob Johnson as a Seer. 

It was not unusual at the time in which Jacob Johnson 
lived to attribute to preachers of the Gospel certain pro- 
phetic powers befitting their holy calling. The following 
words descriptive of William Augustus Muhlenberg (Rev. 
William G. Andrews in "Standard of the Cross," February 
22, 1882) would apply with equal force to Rev. Jacob John- 
son, who was wont to speak of himself as a "seer :" 

"If he was a saint he was also a seer. More than one 
of his friends ascribed to him a kind of prophetic gift, with- 
out thereby claiming for him supernatural knowledge about 
things future or hidden. But he undoubtedly possessed a 
spiritual insight, one fruit of his holiness, and a poetic tem- 
perament and activity of imagination, which together 
enabled him to see and to show with rare vividness, the 
things which ought to be and might be." 

"From early life Mr. Johnson 'claimed to possess the 
gift of prophecy. He became somewhat visionary, and ec- 
centric in his habits, in the latter years of his life ;' he made 
himself a girdle of hair, which he wore, like John the Bap- 
tist,around his loins ; he was a devout Second Adventist, 
and also believed himself to be endowed with a preter- 
natural knowledge of coming events. At length, in the 
eighty-fourth year of his life, the infirmities of age began 
to creep upon him and there came to him one night, in a 
'vision,' a mysterious forewarning of his death. This was 
so real and impressive that Mr. Johnson "not only made 
the usual preparations for dissolution,' but set about digging 
his own grave." 



94 rev. jacob johnson. 

Of His Death. 

Wesley Johnson, Esq., a grandson of Mr. Johnson, thus 
describes his declining days : 

"In extemporaneous pulpit oratory he did not excel, 
but in prayer, he seemed to throw his whole soul into the 
effort, forgetting surrounding objects; he was then truly 
eloquent. Many of his sermons were poetic effusions of 
no small literary merit, some of which, written in exceed- 
ingly neat and accurate chirography, the writer hereof has 
perused with much pleasure. The people called him Priest, 
a title they did not accord to the inferior clergy. * * * 

"In the fulness of time the infirmities of age creep 
on ; his stooping form and failing strength admonish him 
of the end of his earthly pilgrimage ; and now, a vision 
came upon him in the night time, informing him that he 
was about to die, and so certain was he of the truthfulness 
of the heavenly messenger that he informed his family 
next morning of the approaching change, with as much 
calmness and deliberation as though he was only to make 
preparation for a short journey, and as an earnest of his 
belief in the certainty of the event, having procured a 
mattock and spade, with heavy steps he climbed the steep 
ascent of the 'Redoubt' and passed up the ridge. It was 
in the early spring of 1797; snow lay in spots along the 
northern exposure, to the south the warm sunshine had 
quickened the early flowers, and the plants began to put 
forth tiny shoots of green; the scattered leaves lay dead in 
the little hollows, or stranded in hazle thickets they rustled 
to the tread of the timid rabbit in its flight ; the bluebird 
was flitting here and there, and the robin was making a 
frugal meal from the scarlet cones of the sumac on the 
declivity ; a little glade or platform on the ridge is reached ; 
it is a beautiful spot, just over his family burying place; 
the old man stopped to admire, as he had never done before. 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 95 

Looking to the east, he said, 'Here will the earliest beams 
of the morning as they slant down into the valley carress 
these slopes,' and raising his hands in rapt admiration of 
the western prospect, 'Here will departing day linger on 
this spot, while dark shadows fall across the intervale 
beyond, and here will I be buried.' His feeble health would 
not permit of protracted labor, and it required some days 
to complete the task. At length he had shaped the narrow 
home appointed for all the living, on the day preceding the 
one on which he had foretold his end. He informed his 
son Jehoiada of what he had done, gave some directions for 
the funeral in a cheerful and unconcerned manner, and 
retired to rest ; but ere the morning sun shone into his 
window the Angel of Death had passed by that peaceful 
cottage and breathed in the face of the good old man as he 
slept, and there was mourning in the little hamlet." 

Rev. Jacob Johnson died March i8, 1797. His wife, 
who was Miss Mary Giddings of Preston, Conn., and whom 
he married late in life, died January 18, 1805. 

Upon the death of Mrs. Johnson nearly eight years 
later her remains were interred by the side of those of her 
husband. As years passed these secluded and solitary 
graves were neglected, yet were not entirely forgotten. The 
spot was well known, although not marked by any monu- 
ment or the presence of other graves. Col. W. L. Stone, 
writing in 1839 of the eminence upon which these graves 
were situated, said (see "History of Wyoming," page 327) : 
"From its crest the landscape is as beautiful as fancy can 
paint. Upon the summit of this hill sleep the remains of 
the Rev. Mr. Johnson, the first clergyman of Wyoming. He 
was a good scholar and a man of talents — greatly beloved 
by the flock over which he watched for many years. He 
was, however, an eccentric man, entertaining some peculiar 
views in theology. He believed in the second coming and 



96 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

personal reign of Christ upon earth, and insisted upon being 
buried here, facing the east, so that he could see the glori- 
ous pageant of the Messiah in His second descent." Some 
thirty-five years ago the remains of Jacob Johnson and his 
wife were removed from "Westfield's Hill," and now rest 
in Hollenback Cemetery underneath a substantial and 
attractive monument. 

Rev. Jacob and Mary (Giddings) Johnson had nine 
children, four of whom grew to maturity, viz.: (i) Lydia, 
born in 1756; became the wife of Colonel Zebulon Butler; 
died June 26, 1781. (ii) Jacob Williamson, (iii) Jehoiada 
Pitt, (iv) Christiana Olive. The last named was born in 
1769 at Groton, Connecticut. She was married at Wilkes- 
Barre, March 25, 1801, by Dr. Matthew Covell, a justice 
of the peace, to William Russell, Jr. (born February 15, 
1774), son of William and Mehettabel (Cowen) Russell. 
For a number of years William Russell, Jr., owned and car- 
ried on a pottery on River street below Union, on a part of 
Lot No. 9, previously mentioned. He died in Wilkes-Barre 
June 27, 1830, and his wife died here January 15, 1831, 
aged 62 years. They had no children. 

"(ii) Jacob WilHamson Johnson was born at Groton 
about 1765. Rev. Jacob Johnson sometimes, about the year 
1768, signed his name "Jacob Ws. Johnson." It is quite 
probable that his full name was Jacob Williamson Johnson, 
and that within a few years after naming his son Jacob 
Williamson he discarded the "Williamson" from his own 
name. Jacob Williamson Johnson, Jr., was married, pre- 
sumably at Wilkes-Barre, about 1790 or '91, to 

Bailey. He died at his home, corner of Union and Main 
streets. May 22, 1807, and his wife died there September 2, 
1807. They were survived by two daughters: (i) Mary 
Bailey, who became the wife (ist) of Albon Bulford, and 
(2d) of Phineas Nash Foster (born at Montpelier, Vermont 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 97 

(in 1796). (2) Lydia, who in 1822 was married at Groton, 
Connecticut, to A. Smith of AureHus, New York. 

"(iii) Jehoiada Pitt Johnson was born at Groton in 1767, 
and was about 6 years old when he came to Wilkes-Barre 
with the other members of his father's family. In 1789, at 
the age of 22. years, he was "Collector of Rates" for the 
district of Wilkes-Barre. In 1799 he was one of the poor- 
masters of the town, and prior to 1801 he held the office of 
Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre for a year or more. In 1802, 
'03, and '04, and probably in other years about that period, 
he was Collector of State and County Taxes in the district 
of Wilkes-Barre. In 1802, and perhaps later, he was en- 
gaged in a small way in general mercantile business in 
Wilkes-Barre. In June of the year mentioned he advertised 
for sale an "assortment of crockery-ware" — perhaps the 
output of his brother-in-law's pottery. About 1810 or '11 
Jehoiada P. Johnson removed from his house at the north- 
east corner of Union and River streets (which had been 
conveyed to him by his father, and where he had continued 
to Uve after the latter 's death) to Public Lot No. i, which, 
also, had been conveyed to him by his father, in April, 1769. 
Upon that lot, by the side of Laurel Run, within the present 
bounds of the borough of Parsons, he built in 1817 a small 
grist-mill, which he operated until 1825 — one Holgate being 
the miller. Later it was leased to and operated by other 
persons, as explained in a subsequent chapter. 

"Jehoiada P. Johnson was married January 19, 1840, by 
Lawrence Myers, Esq., a justice of the peace, to Hannah 
(born 1782), daughter of Robert and Sarah Frazer. 

Writings of Rev. Jacob Johnson. 

Although Mr. Johnson was one of the theological pam- 
phleteers of his time only a few of his writings remain. 



98 REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 



1754 



The Voice of God from the Dead to the Living. Being 
a Brief Account Of a Religious Life, Comfortable Death 
and last Words of Mrs. Sarah Williams, Who Departed 
this Life April 10, A. Dom. 1754 in the Eighty Eeighth 
Year of her Age. And in the evening of our Anniver- 
sary First Made Public as a Friendly Monitor to Saints ; 
And a Faithful Warning to Sinners. By Jacob Johnson 
A B Minister of the Gospel at Grafton in Connecticut in 
N England in America. Live Well ; and thou shalt Dye 
Well : And Live when thou art Dead. Bible Religion 
New London. Printed and sold by T. Green 1754 
12. mo. pp 24-26-)-2. 



1756 

2. Animadvisions, with some brief Remarks by way of 
Answer to John Bolles of New London &c by Jacob 
Johnson Pastor of a church at Groton Connecticut. 
Printed 1756 16° pp 30. 

This was a reply to a pamphlet entitled 
"To Worship God in Spirit & in Truth Is To Worship 
Him in the True Liberty of Conscience ; That is in 
Bondage to No Flesh And in this Spirit of Liberty I 
have composed the following Treatise And Recommend 
it to the Reader. John Bolles, a servant of Jesus Christ. 



1765 

Zion's Memorial of The present Work of God. The 
Two Witnesses. A Vission of Christ. An Essay on 
Vissions. Three Rules to Know a Work. The present a 
Work of Grace. An Address to All. By Jacob Johnson 
A M Minister of Christ at Groton, Connecticut, In New 



REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 99 

England This Day shall be for a Memorial, Moses on 
the Passions. This is the Work of God. Christ on the 
Gospel. Printed in the Year 1765. 4 to pp 67. 



1768 

Honours due to the Memory and Remains of pious and 
good Men at Death. Shewed and Applied In a Sermon, 
Preached at The Funeral of Col. Christopher Avery 
Esq: Late of Groton, (in the Colony of Connecticut) de- 
ceased. By Jacob Johnson A. M. Preacher of the Gospel 
at Said Groton. "All Judah and Jerusalem did Him 
honour at his Death." H. Chron 32. New London. 
Printed by Timothy Green, 1768 8° pp 30, 



No. I and 2 are in Princeton University Library, and 
Yale University Library. No. 3 is in the Libraries of Union 
Theological Seminary, New York, and the Connecticut 
Historical Society. No. 4 is in the Connecticut Historical 
Society and also in the American Congregational Associ- 
ation Library. 



Jacob Johnson wrote in one of his Fort Stanwix letters 
that he was sending to his family some verses he had writ- 
ten. They have not come down to us. In a pamphlet printed 
by him in 1754 are some verses that are doubtless his, and 
gloomy specimens of theology they are, but they express 
the rehgious spirit of that day. They appear to have been 
suggested by the death of Mrs. Sarah Williams, described 
in the funeral pamphlet above alluded to. They are as 
follows : 



loo REV. JACOB JOHNSON. 

The Dead Warning the Living. 

I'm come to Warn the Youth; 

For you muft Die ; 
Thofe fparkHng Eyes, that rofy Blufh, 
Muft fink to hollow, change to pale, 

And be a Ghoft as I. — 

I'm come to Warn the Man, 

Whofe GOD is Gold ; 
Whofe Heaven is pomp'ous Pride & Scorn ; 
Your golden Scene, to leaden death muft change. 
And gloomy Horrors clafp your naked Soul, 
And wreaths of Lightning flafh, 

Infstead of Tempting Gold. 

I'm come to Warn the Hoary-Head, 

Whofe envious Soul with Avarice is lean; 

You'r in the Suburbs of the Damn'd, & Dead, 

While livid Flame, & Darknefs waves between. 

And Ghofts around you hover. 
Waiting tho Unfeen. — 

Oh ! Youth, Oh ! Middle Age, and Old ! 

All Souls, (I cry) Awake; 
To-Day, while it is Day, the Time, Behold, 

The Time to fcape. 
The gifly Horrors of the Burning Lake ; 
Redemption to Obtain, and Heaven, 

For JESUS'S Sake. 



LE '11 



Jacob Johnson, M. A. 



Pioneer Preacher of 

Wyoming Valley (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) 

1772-1790 

First Settled Pastor First Presbyterian Church 



By 



Frederick G. Johnson, M. D. 

Historiographer Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. 



READ BBFORE THE WYOMING HISTORrCAL AND CJEOI.OGICAI, SOCIETY. 



